Earlier this month Jeanette saw Black-capped Chickadees
entering this bird house with nesting material.
We haven’t seen any activity recently, so yesterday I decided to check
the box to see how much of a nest they had started. When I opened the box I was
startled by a fleeing bird and I discovered a completed nest of grass and moss,
and nestled in the bottom were 5 little eggs! My next question was - where are
we in the process. I was able to go back
in my records and find the date of Jeanette’s observation as May 2. I knew from past research that nest
construction takes 3 or 4 days, and incubation takes from 10 to 13 days, but
how many days for egg laying? It’s been
an answer I haven’t been able to find in any of my books, but today I found in
on the internet, of course. Cornell’s
site, All About Birds says; “Virtually all songbirds lay one egg per day,
usually in the early morning, until the clutch is complete.” Constructing a
time line, the nest would have been finished by the 6th at the
latest, egg laying completed around the 10th, so we are now in the
incubation period. We will be watching
closely for the more obvious signs of the adults bringing insects to the
peeping sounds in the box.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
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