2023-06-03 day archive chickadees 17 days old

Chickadees 17 days old; live stream at /c/gchang99/live Chickadee nesting box live stream, SF Bay south peninsula. Six eggs hatched on May 17-18. The mother chickadee spends all of the night and most of the day on the nestlings, leaving briefly only to take care of herself and find food. She must keep them warm until they develop their own feathers. Both parents feed the young frequently and remove their solid waste. Chestnut-backed chickadees live on the west coast of North America, from Alaska to Southern California. They are common in parks and suburbs of the San Francisco Bay Area, where I have this backyard nesting box. The female builds the nest, starting with a foundation of redwood bark strips torn from a nearby tree and animal fur or other fluffy material she can find nearby. She flutters her wings to form a nesting cup. When ready, she lays one egg each night until she has a clutch of five or six. When she starts incubating them, she goes outside only to eat and drink. Her mate sometimes brings her food. After two weeks of incubation, the first egg hatches. Initially the chicks are blind but not deaf. Both parents feed them frequently, chirping to let them know when food has arrived. The nestlings grow quickly and fledge about 3 weeks after hatching. Spring 2023 chickadee nesting timeline: Nest building starts: March 30 Night roosting starts: Apr 1 Egg laying: April 13-18 Nest abandoned: April 18 The first nest, with full clutch of 6 eggs, was abandoned for unknown reasons before incubation was started. A new nest was built on top of the old one: New nest building starts: April 24 Night roosting starts: Apr 25 Egg laying restarts: April 30 Incubation: May 4-18 Hatching: May 17-18 Fledging: June 7 ? I think the birds are nesting later in 2023 due to the weather -- 2022 was a drought year, whereas this year was very wet and rainy through March. Last year's (spring 2022) chickadee nesting timeline: Nest building Mar 4-9: Nesting material brought in up to 200 trips/day Roosting starts Mar 9: Daytime away, nights on nest Egg laying Mar 21-26: Daytime away, nights on nest; 1 egg laid per day Incubation Mar 26 - Apr 9: Most of day and all night on nest Hatching Apr 8-9: Most of day and all of night spent on nest Fledging May 1: All 5 nestlings fledged Last year's (2022) late-season nesting attempt: New nest building: May 19-21 Egg laying: May 27-29 Incubation started: May 25 Hatching: June 12 Nestlings died: June 24 I think last year's late-season nesting attempt failed because of the drought. There was not enough food to be found to keep the 2 nestlings fed and hydrated. Hopefully they will do better this year with the abundant rain, foliage, and insects. Video clips of chickadee activity: https://twitter.com/SFBayNestCam YouTube channel: /c/gchang99 How to install and live-stream nestcam: https://ataridogdaze.com/science/birds/nestcam-install.html

Category