At 3:59 the female was checking for any faecal sacs left in the bottom of the nest cup. Both parents will wait after feeding each chick for a faecal sac to be produced then remove it from the nest box. Sometimes a chick produces a faecal sac after the parents have left the box and this falls to the bottom of the nest. Every now and then the female will check under the chicks for faecal sacs so as they don't contaminate the nest.
+Brett Oliver I assumed that, when I counted. But you could have shown that once, even if it's sad. It's part of the process and nature. Does she then just drop the dead chick somewhere? I wonder, if birds mourn somehow.
Chicks that need a strictly insectivorous diet die when fed inappropriate food. These Blue Tit parents are fed by humans. They are opportunistic and under a lot of stress, so they take the provided food thankfully, but it can do a lot of damage, unfortunately. I can see dried mealworms and mealworms and strange small solid-looking pieces in the video. But Blue Tits chicks should be only fed with a multitude of soft and small live insects, mostly larvae and aphids, which are normally freshly killed by the parents. Mealworms are too hard and difficult to digest, they don't have much nutritional value for fast-growing bird chicks. You can see in the video that the bird parents (who don't have healthy plumage themselves, often a sign of malnutrition) often try to feed a mealworm to the chicks, but the babies are unable to swallow the too-hard mealworm and the parents leave without having fed even 1 baby. Several of them must have starved to death or died from malnutrition. :-( It is better to have an insect-friendly garden with lots of flowers, bushes, trees, even dead wood, so that the bird parents can gather insects for their chicks themselves. If you want to support insectivorous birds, please try to imitate what they find in nature, offer some wax moth larvae, soldier fly larvae and small crickets. These are the insects used for handraising baby Blue Tits. Give the parents a chance to find insects in nature, only support them when you see they have difficulties finding enough insects in nature (easy with a webcam). If your garden birds are unable to find enough insects, please consider planting lots of insect-friendly plants. PLEASE DO NOT FEED MEALWORMS ONLY AND/OR TALLOW PRODUCTS TO BREEDING BIRDS/BIRD PARENTS. THIS DIET IS TOO UNBALANCED AND LEADS TO DYING CHICKS! BABY BIRDS NEED A NUTRITION OFFERING THEM A LARGE VARIETY OF NUTRIENTS; VITAMINS; PROTEINS AND ARE VERY, VERY DELICATE AND VULNERABLE!
Thank you for the quick reply. If you already know so much about birds, it shouldn't be a problem to you to help the birds with better live insects - a mix of wax moth larvae, soldier fly larvae and small to medium crickets. They are easy to get, almost every pet shop has them, or you can order them online. Variety is key when raising a baby bird. You would want to imitate nature. The green caterpillars have eaten a lot before being picked up by the birds. And they are very soft. Mealworms are cheap but their shell is too hard for the delicate babys and sadly they do not provide enough nutritional value. Baby birds grow so fast, they often look healthy because they cannot afford looking ill or weak, but the nutritional deficiencies show much later, for example during/after the first molt. There is worse than mealworms of course but they are not ideal. I can only recommend to try buying and offering a large variety of soft and nutrient-rich insects. A little more (financial) effort for the humans and a better aid for our beloved birds. :-)
+Ben Whoever LOL. It's a faecal sac, a mucous membrane that surrounds the feces of some species of nestling birds. It allows parent birds to more easily remove fecal material from the nest.
Hi, a well done video with a lot of technical arrangement to make it possible. Kudos to you and thumbs up!
Rüdiger
What a wonderful video, thank you
At 3:59 the female was checking for any faecal sacs left in the bottom of the nest cup. Both parents will wait after feeding each chick for a faecal sac to be produced then remove it from the nest box. Sometimes a chick produces a faecal sac after the parents have left the box and this falls to the bottom of the nest. Every now and then the female will check under the chicks for faecal sacs so as they don't contaminate the nest.
Loved this. Thank you. Answered all my questions about what wad going on in my wee box.
Oh so lovely!! my family and I have had 4 families now, and the fourth one is at day 15-20 now I believe :) they will be leaving us soon :)
So there are 9 baby birds in that nest wow that's a lot of mouths to feed especially for mother and father bird
Wonderful Video and I now can see what is going on in my own nest box!!! :-)
great video, thanks for uploading
Great video :) how is it light in the box?
mom: gets home
chicks: SCREECH CIRCLE
Awesome tutorial! Impossible for orinthologists from a few decades ago to master or duplicate. Thanx for sharing.
I realize I'm kinda off topic but does anybody know of a good site to stream new movies online?
@Anson Emmitt ehh I watch on flixportal. you can find it through google :D -gavin
@Gavin Crew Thanks, I went there and it seems like they got a lot of movies there :) Appreciate it!!
@Anson Emmitt glad I could help =)
I don't get it. At first there were 10 eggs. And 10 newborn birdies. Then there's nine. Eight. And seven at the end.
What happened to the other three?
When chicks die the female will remove them from the nest.
They died, it happens
+Brett Oliver I assumed that, when I counted. But you could have shown that once, even if it's sad. It's part of the process and nature. Does she then just drop the dead chick somewhere? I wonder, if birds mourn somehow.
Chicks that need a strictly insectivorous diet die when fed inappropriate food. These Blue Tit parents are fed by humans. They are opportunistic and under a lot of stress, so they take the provided food thankfully, but it can do a lot of damage, unfortunately.
I can see dried mealworms and mealworms and strange small solid-looking pieces in the video. But Blue Tits chicks should be only fed with a multitude of soft and small live insects, mostly larvae and aphids, which are normally freshly killed by the parents.
Mealworms are too hard and difficult to digest, they don't have much nutritional value for fast-growing bird chicks. You can see in the video that the bird parents (who don't have healthy plumage themselves, often a sign of malnutrition) often try to feed a mealworm to the chicks, but the babies are unable to swallow the too-hard mealworm and the parents leave without having fed even 1 baby. Several of them must have starved to death or died from malnutrition. :-(
It is better to have an insect-friendly garden with lots of flowers, bushes, trees, even dead wood, so that the bird parents can gather insects for their chicks themselves. If you want to support insectivorous birds, please try to imitate what they find in nature, offer some wax moth larvae, soldier fly larvae and small crickets. These are the insects used for handraising baby Blue Tits.
Give the parents a chance to find insects in nature, only support them when you see they have difficulties finding enough insects in nature (easy with a webcam). If your garden birds are unable to find enough insects, please consider planting lots of insect-friendly plants.
PLEASE DO NOT FEED MEALWORMS ONLY AND/OR TALLOW PRODUCTS TO BREEDING BIRDS/BIRD PARENTS. THIS DIET IS TOO UNBALANCED AND LEADS TO DYING CHICKS! BABY BIRDS NEED A NUTRITION OFFERING THEM A LARGE VARIETY OF NUTRIENTS; VITAMINS; PROTEINS AND ARE VERY, VERY DELICATE AND VULNERABLE!
Thank you for the quick reply.
If you already know so much about birds, it shouldn't be a problem to you to help the birds with better live insects - a mix of wax moth larvae, soldier fly larvae and small to medium crickets.
They are easy to get, almost every pet shop has them, or you can order them online.
Variety is key when raising a baby bird. You would want to imitate nature. The green caterpillars have eaten a lot before being picked up by the birds. And they are very soft.
Mealworms are cheap but their shell is too hard for the delicate babys and sadly they do not provide enough nutritional value. Baby birds grow so fast, they often look healthy because they cannot afford looking ill or weak, but the nutritional deficiencies show much later, for example during/after the first molt. There is worse than mealworms of course but they are not ideal. I can only recommend to try buying and offering a large variety of soft and nutrient-rich insects.
A little more (financial) effort for the humans and a better aid for our beloved birds. :-)
What happened to the three? Weren't there 10 to start with?
Awesome work! :-)
ماشا الله مناظر جميلة جدا عصفور ياكل الصغير ها بالتوفيق والنجاح باذن الله 🌺👍🔔
@2:56, what the heck was that?
+Ben Whoever LOL. It's a faecal sac, a mucous membrane that surrounds the feces of some species of nestling birds. It allows parent birds to more easily remove fecal material from the nest.
worth watching!
what was it doing in 3:59 ?
great video
great video !
Hi Brett Great Vid what software did you use to put all the shots together, and did you have the light on a timer.
Hi Bob I think I used Windows movie maker. The lights are controlled from a switch inside my shed.
me gusta como cria a sus crias
So cute...
so cute
How often did they eat in an hour?
The box it lit by white LEDs.
8:01 he was pooping lol
Snooze snooze snooze...*dad arrives* MOUTH OPEN MOUTH OPEN MOUTH OPEN
I light the box with LED lights see my technical page on my Nest Box site
Awwwwwsome so sweet...🤗
Hay quá
🥰🥰🥰❤️❤️❤️💋💋💋
Pour them grubs down our throats and fast. We're so hungry!!
were these finches?
They are Blue Tits. www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-and-wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/b/bluetit/
Brett Oliver thankyou
this is like Agar.io for birds
what just happend in 2:56?
+cupcake lover! The parent removed a faecal sac from the chick. This is taken away from the nest box and dropped. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fecal_sac
Oh ok thanks
Talk about a lot of mouths to feed
10egs
10 eggs - 7 chicks...
Too many mouths to feed!