Hi there, I am new to this forum and seems like a good place to get the answers i am looking for! We had A male and female Blue Tit making a nest in our well established bird box, they did seem to make there nest a lot later than other years so we were really glad that they started nesting! Eventually they laid 9 eggs and seven of them hatched, but day by day they are dying! Yesterday one of the chicks had got out of the nest and i slowly watched the poor thing die, the mum was coming in and out and feeding the surviving two chicks but completely ignored this poor chick!!! Why do they do that? Today even though she has been coming in and out with food (massive grubs sometimes) and rare visits from the Dad she now only has one surviving chick. So, my question is Why is she letting her chicks die when she is bringing food in and out throughout the day? Also, what happens to the dead chicks? Does she eat them?
-
BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!
Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Blue Tits- Only one baby left! (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Jofro34
- Start date
Hi Jofro and a warm welcome to you from all the Staff and Moderators.
Sadly, for us, nest casualties are very high, particularly in the smaller song birds. This is why they lay so many eggs. They only need one or two young to fledge and they've done what they need to do to ensure their genes continue. Hence they put all their energy into feeding the strongest chicks.
It's really hard for us to observe this though. Some species do feed the casualties to the youngsters, but I'm not sure if Blue Tits do this.
I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I look forward to hearing your news.
Sadly, for us, nest casualties are very high, particularly in the smaller song birds. This is why they lay so many eggs. They only need one or two young to fledge and they've done what they need to do to ensure their genes continue. Hence they put all their energy into feeding the strongest chicks.
It's really hard for us to observe this though. Some species do feed the casualties to the youngsters, but I'm not sure if Blue Tits do this.
I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I look forward to hearing your news.
Tired
Well-known member
If a chick has completely fallen out of the nest, parents will often stop caring for it. They need to devote their energy to the chicks that are still safely in the nest, instead of the chick that will likely die of exposure or a predator. Sadly, they have no way to transport it back to the nest.
Hello Jofro and welcome to the forum, enjoy and all the best.
I'm in Bristol and agree the weather has been shocking! We have had camera in our bird box for several years and in the first year we were very spoilt, we had eight chicks and 6 of them fledged! but since then its been quite sporadic! We had 6 eggs and only one fledged before that but never as bad as this year. We have one egg left today, so fingers crossed she'll put all her efforts into this little one!
Hello Jofro34,
our female blue tit did a lot of digging when the first ones died. She brought additional feathers and grass and built some kind of basement to the nest, which got very deep, the dead chicks got all covered. This way she probably saves the healthy chicks from bacteria and keeps them seperate. Never heard of them eating young chicks, maybe someone knows...
Meisenmama
