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Brad, don’t see any remnants of egg shell, so parents have removed/eaten it and they are around, waiting I imagine for the others to hatch. They usually hatch the same day, but not always! Spooker stays on until after fledging when you clean out box, but wren guard needs to be on AT least 4 or 5 days, and many wait until 7 or 8 (wrens are very sneaky!). It must be off before peeking/fledging or it will interfere with their leaving the nest, and parents can feed them more easily when the guard is off. Congrats on hatch and good luck.
I leave a guard on until day 10 or so. There is really no reason to take it off earlier than that. At day 10 adults are still entering the box to feed.
Gin
Atlanta, GAAll is still well with all 4 babies. One egg hatched May 21. The others were there the morning of May 22. Looks like they should fledge Wed, maybe Thurs or Fri. I quit opening the box several days ago but the parents are still both feeding quite actively.
Do they usually fledge in the morning or is it random?
How long after they fledge should I clean out the box?
Brad, I don’t believe there is any set time for fledging – and sometimes it might take a few hours for them all to fledge. I know parents try to get them out before dark or they could get lost. They would stop calling them to come out before too late in the day. You need to clean out the box as soon as you can after they fledge.
I just want to say thank you to everyone here for all the help. I’ve had 4 babies successfully fledge – 2 yesterday and the last 2 today. I only saw one flying around the yard briefly, so mom and dad must have herded them off where they want to protect them quickly and easily.
I really appreciate all the help here. I saved the nest in case I ever need to change one out and my box is ready and cleaned out in case anyone else wants to use it.
Congrats Brad but you should toss that used nest. The only ones to save are the ones where nobody hatched.
Gin
Atlanta, GAThe nest still has a decent shape. Should I still throw it away? I saved it for an emergency but will toss it if advised to.
I came back home from a trip and a new nest is several days into construction. Looks to be a second round, although not sure if it would be the 2nd or 3rd brood in NC this time of year.
Mom, dad, and at least one baby have been seen around. I don’t look at the area often. I took this pic. Can anyone tell if it’s a male or female baby? Looks to be a bright blue, but there isn’t much of it. I couldn’t tell that any were clearly males in the nest.
I am pretty firm on this: a nest that has been used (unless nobody hatched) should be tossed.
Looks like a male but hard to tell for sure. Sorry.
Gin
Atlanta, GAThanks for the info. I’ll toss that nest.
Couple other questions (they just keep popping up and I like learning)
I see the male near the box a lot this time around. There is one baby hanging around with him. I don’t really see the female (I don’t look that often, but she’s obviously building a nest rapidly). Is it likely that the other 3 babies didn’t make it in the wild? Or are they off somewhere else happily thriving?
My granddad gave me a second box that I’m going to put up in my backyard. I would like to get chickadees in it (I know they are done for this year). Are they more tolerant of being a bit away from brush? I have HOWR in the backyard and don’t want to put it somewhere that I have to keep removing nests. I have a spot I would like to put it, but there isn’t a lot of dense brush nearby. Are there any other considerations or birds I should look to have (I’m in NC).
The cornell nestwatch site has a nice interactive feature to look up birds that will nest in boxes in your area with placement tips. The sialis site also has a good page on chickadees that might be helpful…I’ve been referencing that a lot lately since I have BCCH in one of my boxes now.
http://nestwatch.org/learn/all-about-birdhouses/right-bird-right-house/
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