At the beginning of this week, the female Great Tit started to lay eggs. With nest building completed and incubation yet to start, the eggs were still being left unattended for long periods during the day ( covered with nesting material). Yesterday, Class 1 reported seeing a sparrow in the B&W birdcam box and it seemed to be paying far too much attention to the area where the eggs were buried. The children then noticed that one of the eggs appeared to be cracked. This morning two sparrows were seen destroying and removing the rest of the eggs. They also brought in some dried grass and feathers.
-
- Finding the Great Tit eggs
-
- A broken egg
-
- Finishing off the eggs
-
- New nesting material
-
- The 1st Sparrow Egg – May 2nd
-
- 2nd Sparrow Egg – May 3rd
Will the sparrows now make the box theirs? How do you feel about what the sparrows did? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment on this post.
A sparrow has came and made a mess, because sparrows are realy messy!!
I feel sorry for the great tits because they’ve got moved away from their nest and the sparrows destroyed all the eggs.
We saw two sparrows again in the nest this morning.
Why did the sparrows have to destroy the nest?!!!
Ifeel sorry about the greytits because the sparrows attacked them!!!
we could have had 3 chiks
I think it is not nice that they have done that we could have had birds but no because they have destroyed it
i saw my dogs hair in a nest on the ground
It looks like there is an egg in the nest this morning, I wonder when it was laid? Usually the female roosts in the box overnight and lays an new egg during the night or early morning but I didn’t see her in the box last night. Perhaps she was buried under all that nesting material.
Gosh! That is really sad. It is amazing what happens in nature. What I really wanted to know from all of you was how long blue tits incubate their eggs for because I think we are getting close to that stage? Now I feel a little worried for our Mummy blue tit in case the same thing happens to her!
Hi Wessington!
Hopefully your blue tit eggs will be ok, now that the adults are with the eggs most the time. Our great tits were still at the egg laying stage and so were leaving the eggs unattended for much of the day. The first year we had our box, a tree sparrow was destroying our blue tit eggs as they were laid. As soon as we spotted this, we added a hole adaptor to the box to stop it getting in. Luckily the blue tits went on to lay six more eggs. (Read more here)
The female sparrow has settled down for the night on the egg. We should see another tomorrow.
The second egg was laid sometime between 6am and 7am. The male sparrow kept coming in the the nest box at this time to check up on the female. Sometimes he snuggled in next to her!
We have seen 4 spotty eggs. The Mum comes back and sits on the eggs. We can see the Mum keeping the eggs warm under the feathers. She is under the feathers too. soon the eggs will hatch.
Well spotted Class 1. You will have to wait nearly two weeks to see the chicks, I hope you can be patient Class 1!
Sometimes the male bird (Dad) sits on the eggs too. Can you tell the difference between the male (Dad) and the female (Mum) bird?
Another egg this morning, bringing the total to five! Last time we had sparrows nesting (2008) they only laid 3 eggs and although they all hatched, none of the chicks survived to fledge.
The sparrow has 5 eggs.The male was sitting on them to keep them warm. The male has a black bib
sparrows made a mess in the nest.