Success! We have Chickaddees making a nest!
Here’s what’s happened so far:
April 9, 2015
A Black-Capped Chickadee “inspected” the bird house, flying in and out of it at least a dozen times, and looking all around it, above it, next to it, etc. The bird house is attached to our shed. There is a gap at the top of the shed door, and the chickadee even stuck its little head in and looked into the shed. Then later that day, he brought by another chickadee to show it his home. I can’t tell female from male, so maybe it was her showing him… I don’t know which.
April 10 – April 11, 2015
Black-Capped Chickadee(s) are getting territorial over their new man-made home! The chickadee attacked a downy woodpecker that was eating at a nearby suet feeder. We usually only see one chickadee at a time so it’s hard to know if one is staying in the house all of the time or not. We also saw other Chickadees checking out another nearby nesting box.
April 12, 2015
The chickadees started bringing nesting material. It looks like they are using some moss and some red flower petals! Maybe some dog fur from next door too. I can’t tell if they are sharing in building the nest, but it appears that while one is out getting nest material, the other stands near the nest, guarding it.
April 15, 2015
The Chickadees continue to bring nesting material to their bird house. They carry lots of green material in their bill, which may have been moss or grass. I also saw them picking at our porch carpet. One time it looked like they found dog fur. I tried to get photos of them building their nest, but I was not patient enough and just got the above photo of the chickadee on the outside of the nesting box. When the Chickadee wasn’t busy getting nesting material, she would stand nearby, acting as a sentry, guarding the box and occasionally scaring off other birds. We moved the suet feeder farther away so that it wouldn’t be so close to the nest.
We are very excited because this is the first time we’ve had any birds use our bird house!!