Live Stream of my Bird Box - Bluetits Nesting - Chicks Hatching Now
- Thread starter Nazbit
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Soldato
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Well thats very reassuring. Thanks for the detailed reply.
A look at the eggs today in colour.
Some of the many trips the male made today to bring her food. We also saw him feeding her outside around the garden on a few occasions.
Today was a lot colder than it has been recently which is probably why she spent a lot more time inside looking after the eggs. You can tell how cold it was by the fact she fluffed up to keep warm. She normally only does this overnight.
As a result the camera spent a lot of the day in black and white mode due to the low ambient light but when the sun did come out towards the evening it made for a nice lighting effect in the box.
Some of the many trips the male made today to bring her food. We also saw him feeding her outside around the garden on a few occasions.
Today was a lot colder than it has been recently which is probably why she spent a lot more time inside looking after the eggs. You can tell how cold it was by the fact she fluffed up to keep warm. She normally only does this overnight.
As a result the camera spent a lot of the day in black and white mode due to the low ambient light but when the sun did come out towards the evening it made for a nice lighting effect in the box.
Soldato
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Can't the bird boxes be insulated?
Or would they get too warm?
Or would they get too warm?
Yeah I think they would become too warm. One of the biggest causes of chicks and nestlings dying inside the box is it getting too warm.
When choosing a location for a bird box I believe its important that it doesn't face south and that it has some shade to prevent it from overheating later on in the spring as it gets more sunny.
She is used to temperatures cooler than this over the winter and the box does offer her some decent protection especially with the nesting material all around her but obviously shes got to make sure she keeps those eggs in the right window. Fingers crossed.
When choosing a location for a bird box I believe its important that it doesn't face south and that it has some shade to prevent it from overheating later on in the spring as it gets more sunny.
She is used to temperatures cooler than this over the winter and the box does offer her some decent protection especially with the nesting material all around her but obviously shes got to make sure she keeps those eggs in the right window. Fingers crossed.
Soldato
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Yes that makes sense
As long as don't get a late spring blast from siberia they can probably cope
With it
As long as don't get a late spring blast from siberia they can probably cope
With it
Soldato
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Despite multiple visits to my nest box a few weeks ago, they decided not to nest. I've been up to take a look and theres a hole in the roof, so I'll replace the box and hopefully they'll be back next year. 
No new egg this morning so we are still on 7.
She spent most of the day in the box yesterday and so far I've not noticed her leave today so I think we are probably moving from the egg laying phase to incubation.
What's interesting is that they usually start incubating after the penultimate egg is layed and then lay the last one on day two of incubation.
Having not had an egg this morning means we're not quite following that pattern but it may be related to the fact we had a big sudden drop in temperature yesterday. So let's see if we get one tomorrow but 7-12 is the average clutch size so she's in that window now with 7 so that could well be her done.
Incubation typically lasts 13-15 days during which time she will stay sat on the eggs for most, if not all, of the day while the male brings food to her. If she can't depend on the male then she will leave for short periods to get her own food supply.
So far the male is coming regularly. When he does come he will usually fly back to her three or four times in quick succession with either insects or lumps of peanut butter from our feeder and then he will go away for another hour or so.
If you watch the male feeding her you'll see he tends to follow the same routine which is that he collects food and then flies in to box three. The right hand box.
He will then call out to her and she will answer back and he will then move from box three to box one where she is and pass her the food.
Sometimes he peers in to box two on his way.
Not entirely sure why this behaviour is. If you remember he did roost in box three over the winter and it's this box he initially presented to her when she arrived on the scene. It was the female who decided to switch the nest after a couple of days from box three to one which is considerably larger inside and has a restrictor plate on the entry hole to protect from bigger birds. You'd have to say that seems like a good decision.
So it could be that he keeps forgetting they moved or it could be a quick decoy to put preditors off and a staging space to call out to her to tell her he's about to come in.
She spent most of the day in the box yesterday and so far I've not noticed her leave today so I think we are probably moving from the egg laying phase to incubation.
What's interesting is that they usually start incubating after the penultimate egg is layed and then lay the last one on day two of incubation.
Having not had an egg this morning means we're not quite following that pattern but it may be related to the fact we had a big sudden drop in temperature yesterday. So let's see if we get one tomorrow but 7-12 is the average clutch size so she's in that window now with 7 so that could well be her done.
Incubation typically lasts 13-15 days during which time she will stay sat on the eggs for most, if not all, of the day while the male brings food to her. If she can't depend on the male then she will leave for short periods to get her own food supply.
So far the male is coming regularly. When he does come he will usually fly back to her three or four times in quick succession with either insects or lumps of peanut butter from our feeder and then he will go away for another hour or so.
If you watch the male feeding her you'll see he tends to follow the same routine which is that he collects food and then flies in to box three. The right hand box.
He will then call out to her and she will answer back and he will then move from box three to box one where she is and pass her the food.
Sometimes he peers in to box two on his way.
Not entirely sure why this behaviour is. If you remember he did roost in box three over the winter and it's this box he initially presented to her when she arrived on the scene. It was the female who decided to switch the nest after a couple of days from box three to one which is considerably larger inside and has a restrictor plate on the entry hole to protect from bigger birds. You'd have to say that seems like a good decision.
So it could be that he keeps forgetting they moved or it could be a quick decoy to put preditors off and a staging space to call out to her to tell her he's about to come in.
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Despite multiple visits to my nest box a few weeks ago, they decided not to nest. I've been up to take a look and theres a hole in the roof, so I'll replace the box and hopefully they'll be back next year.
That's unfortunate but I'd say if you had lots of interest that's a good sign for next year and you may get some roosting over winter too.
Soldato
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They nested last year so fingers crossed it's just the roof that put them off.
So with three days without any eggs and two of those days spent predominantly sitting on the eggs I think we can now say that we've moved to the incubation phase.
I believe that if everything does well we are looking at the eggs potentially hatching around 12th - 14th May.
Her behavior on the stream will be a little different from now on.
For the next two weeks she will be sitting on the eggs for most of the day. Which means that most of the time that you check on the stream she should be waiting for you.
She will leave for a few minutes every now and again for a quick stretch. She will also need to leave more often in order to find food if the male doesn't bring her enough. So far he is doing a good job.
She does look funny when she squashes herself down on the eggs. Like a fluffy bluetit pancake.
You'll also see her regularly tucking her head underneath herself and sticking her tail up in the air as she rotates the eggs in to different positions for equal warmth. She will also regularly move around to face different directions so that the eggs all get equal chance at hatching.
And we will hopefully continue to see the male coming to feed her regularly. Keep an eye out for him because when he does come he will usually come three or four times in quick succession and he will do this every hour or so. So far he has brought bugs, spiders and mainly chunks of peanut butter from our feeder. So I need to make sure I stock that up.
I believe that if everything does well we are looking at the eggs potentially hatching around 12th - 14th May.
Her behavior on the stream will be a little different from now on.
For the next two weeks she will be sitting on the eggs for most of the day. Which means that most of the time that you check on the stream she should be waiting for you.
She will leave for a few minutes every now and again for a quick stretch. She will also need to leave more often in order to find food if the male doesn't bring her enough. So far he is doing a good job.
She does look funny when she squashes herself down on the eggs. Like a fluffy bluetit pancake.
You'll also see her regularly tucking her head underneath herself and sticking her tail up in the air as she rotates the eggs in to different positions for equal warmth. She will also regularly move around to face different directions so that the eggs all get equal chance at hatching.
And we will hopefully continue to see the male coming to feed her regularly. Keep an eye out for him because when he does come he will usually come three or four times in quick succession and he will do this every hour or so. So far he has brought bugs, spiders and mainly chunks of peanut butter from our feeder. So I need to make sure I stock that up.
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Also watch out for her creating a brood patch which is a pink area on her lower body where she will remove feathers in order to get better heat transfer to the eggs.
As far as I know she hasn't done this yet but if you spot it please try to get a picture or the timestamp.
As far as I know she hasn't done this yet but if you spot it please try to get a picture or the timestamp.
http://sbbot.org.uk/ringing/ringing-may-2014/ said:INCUBATING EGGS– During the spring we are able to identify the sex of species, even those showing little sexual dimorphism (obvious plumage differences between sexes) whilst in the hand, as female birds particularly moult off a definite bare area of feathers on the underside called the brood patch. Blood flow increases around this area of skin and blood vessels become engorged. The brood patch is placed directly onto the eggs to transfer body heat allowing the embryo to develop under a steady temperature. The average egg temperature for birds is about 34˚C while the average body temperature is 43˚C. The brood patch remains throughout incubation and into the early stages of brooding the young.The photograph shows detail of a female Great Tit with a brood patch at ‘stage 4’ where the patch is less engorged, paler and with wrinkled skin once eggs have hatched and the young are growing in the nest.
Very strange events overnight.
At around 01.45 she wakes up and starts looking around. She tentatively peered out of the box three or four times before eventually leaving.
She didn't return until 04:50. So that is three whole hours out of the box in the early hours of the morning when she should be incubating.
As far as I'm aware that is much longer than she should be leaving the eggs alone for especially at night in the lower temperatures. I've had bluetits roost in the box overwinter and shes been here for 21 days now and I've never seen a bluetit leave the box at night before.
Don't have an explanation as of yet.
At around 01.45 she wakes up and starts looking around. She tentatively peered out of the box three or four times before eventually leaving.
She didn't return until 04:50. So that is three whole hours out of the box in the early hours of the morning when she should be incubating.
As far as I'm aware that is much longer than she should be leaving the eggs alone for especially at night in the lower temperatures. I've had bluetits roost in the box overwinter and shes been here for 21 days now and I've never seen a bluetit leave the box at night before.
Don't have an explanation as of yet.
Six of our eggs have hatched so far, the camera *should* be viewable using something like VLC at
rtsp://5.66.76.89:554/user=admin&password=&channel=1&stream=0.sdp?real_stream
@Nazbit , in previous years we had the mother leave the eggs for the entire night without a problem.
rtsp://5.66.76.89:554/user=admin&password=&channel=1&stream=0.sdp?real_stream
@Nazbit , in previous years we had the mother leave the eggs for the entire night without a problem.
Awsome. can confirm that's working. Not seen them being fed but caught site of a few of the chicks a couple of times.
It seems to drop the connection pretty consistently after a few minutes there isn't a timeout or anything set is there?
That's very reassuring to hear. Couldn't find anything about this behaviour online.
Do you know where they go or why they leave overnight? I've not witnessed it before.
Fingers crossed all seven hatch! I’m watching this thread with interest. We had our first baby bird in the garden yesterday which was a sparrow being fed by Mum.mwe are eagerly awaiting the arrival of all the baby **** with their dodgy flying and aborted landings.