Hi,
First I will introduce myself, because I'm new here on birdforum.
I'm Bianca from the Netherlands, the Hague. And for the past few years I'm into birding and also feeding the birds on my balcony.
I have special food cages where only the small birds, like the tit family, can enter.
You can say, I created a little paradise for the small birds in my local area.
Asides from food, water and plants I have also a nestbox where for the past 4 years great tits breeding.
Last year I bought a nestbox with a camera installed, and was very hopeful that a pair of great tits (or blue tits) find the nestbox suitable for starting a nest.
I was not disappointed, because in early march there was activity around the nestbox.
A pair of GT started to check it out and the same day the female started to build the nest.
Eventually she laid 8 eggs and 7 of them hatched.
The weird thing was that between the first chick that hatched and the last one sat 5 days.
Fast forward to today.
7 chicks had fledged, all went well to my great relief, because two magpies are breeding right in front of my balcony.
But they didn't care or noticed.
The last chick however is still in the nestbox. The parents still feeding the young one, but he's still very young. As far as I know he is now 16/17 days.
So my question is, will the parents continue feeding him? Has everybody experienced something like this? And if the parents stop feeding him, how long do I wait before I take action and bring him to a bird wildlife centre? I will not let him die, but I don't want to interfere too soon.
I hope somebody can give me some advice.
Thanks in advance!
First I will introduce myself, because I'm new here on birdforum.
I'm Bianca from the Netherlands, the Hague. And for the past few years I'm into birding and also feeding the birds on my balcony.
I have special food cages where only the small birds, like the tit family, can enter.
You can say, I created a little paradise for the small birds in my local area.
Asides from food, water and plants I have also a nestbox where for the past 4 years great tits breeding.
Last year I bought a nestbox with a camera installed, and was very hopeful that a pair of great tits (or blue tits) find the nestbox suitable for starting a nest.
I was not disappointed, because in early march there was activity around the nestbox.
A pair of GT started to check it out and the same day the female started to build the nest.
Eventually she laid 8 eggs and 7 of them hatched.
The weird thing was that between the first chick that hatched and the last one sat 5 days.
Fast forward to today.
7 chicks had fledged, all went well to my great relief, because two magpies are breeding right in front of my balcony.
But they didn't care or noticed.
The last chick however is still in the nestbox. The parents still feeding the young one, but he's still very young. As far as I know he is now 16/17 days.
So my question is, will the parents continue feeding him? Has everybody experienced something like this? And if the parents stop feeding him, how long do I wait before I take action and bring him to a bird wildlife centre? I will not let him die, but I don't want to interfere too soon.
I hope somebody can give me some advice.
Thanks in advance!
