the bird box

This is our first effort at a bird box. We were hoping for a bluebird, but weren’t holding our breath because bluebirds like open spaces, and we wanted the bird box on our deck so we could easily watch the comings and goings.

Bluebirds did check the box out, as did tufted titmice and Carolina chickadees. I missed it, but Princess Gail got to see a pair of Carolina chickadees come and go with soft materials to make their nest during the course of one day. You can see a few pictures of them on Gail’s bird blog here. So we were quite surprised to find that the birds that actually occupied the nest were not the chickadees. We think they let the chickadees do most of the work, and then a tufted titmouse just took over. They are known to be aggressive nest makers. Gail posted a few pictures of the tufted titmice on the bird box here.

Now we can peek inside through the hinged roof and respectfully observe the wonders of nature, right on our own deck! Here is the mother titmouse sitting on her eggs. They typically lay 5 to 6, so we eagerly expect a hungry brood in 1 to 2 weeks!