I have nest box camera and have been watching over the past 7 weeks, as a female blue tit built a nest and hatched a small brood of 3 chicks.
After being away for a few days (all seemed well with the nest before I left) I turned on the camera to find all three chicks appeared to have died.
I continued to observe for a couple of minutes but there was no motion in the box. I could clearly see one chick face down and another looks to have been attacked. When I have gone outside, the third is on the ground just below the box.
I am devastated.
I have had blue tits nesting in the box previously without anything like this happening.
One previous box was attacked by magpies and in an effort to avoid this in the future I constructed a cage around the new nest box to avoid it happening again. This posses no obstacle to the blue tits but does keep the bigger birds at bay.
Does anyone have any insight into what may have happened here please?
Has one parent died and the other has struggled to keep feeding the chicks?
Has another small bird got into the box and killed the chicks?
Any knowledge around this would be greatly appreciated.
Hi, at what stage were the chicks, ready for fledging? Could be that the parent bird has been predated, maybe another blue or great tit wanted the nest and tried to get the dead chicks out ... how has the weather been at yours, possible lack of suitable food as insects have been in low numbers this season ... so many variables and a shame you weren't there to look at your camera, no recordings I presume? There has been quite a high number of failed blue tit nests reported on here this season, such a shame and can only hope for better outcomes next year!
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Thank you for your response Wendy.
The chicks had only hatched around 2 weeks ago and from what I could see their eyes hadn’t yet opened.
The weather over the past week had been warmer and sunny at times, but prior to that it had been quite wet. I did notice once that one of the parents appeared to go to the bird feeder take some food and then go into the box with it. I thought this could have been the male feeding the female but maybe they were struggling to find live food.
Unfortunately my camera is live view only to a TV so no recordings sadly. Though I was considering trying to see if I could fit a blink camera into it for next season.
Prior to the eggs hatching I did happen to witness what I thought could have been an attempted nest invasion by another blue tit. The mother was sat on the nest, another blue tit entered the box and a scuffle broke out. I don’t know if this a common thing?
Unfortunate and sad to see but that is nature I guess, it can be a cruel world. I’m hopeful for blue tits to return next year.
They must have been not long off fledging if you saw them hatch 14 days ago, normally fledge at 18 -21 days ... quite possible mother could have been attacked if another wanted the nest and it could have returned to get at the chicks, all very sad