[obol] Black-capped Chickadee nest cleaning behavior

[SJJag at comcast.net]

Yep, they seem to like to "excavte" before nesting...we offer a small bag of wood chips to purchasers of Chickadee nest boxes at the BackYard Bird Shops as the birds seem to like to take some out before using the box.  I have seen this twice with my nest box...they deposit the material several feet away-I believe to not give indication of the nest site to potential predators.


Steve Jaggers

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Ed McVicker <ed.mcvicker at comcast.net> 
A couple years ago I observed Chestnut-backed Chickadee(s) removing material from a nest box in my garden. Two birds were in the area of the box, but the frequency of visits was such that I could not tell if it was the same individual who made several trips in and out of the box. Each time the bird left the box it flew away with what appeared to be nesting material. It did not have anything with it when entering the box. I don't believe the pair actually used the box for nesting as activity decreased in the area in the days that followed.

Ed McVicker
Portland

ted schroeder wrote: 
Hi OBOLers,
Today I observed a pair of Black-capped Chickadees picking up sunflower seeds and taking them up into the nearest tree to work them over, as they do, so they ccould extract the meat and eat it. This reminded me that I had not cleaned the nest box in which they, or another pair, had produced a brood last spring/summer. Last year I had seen them entering and/or leaving the nest box over an extended period of time and eventually, I had watched them repeatedly delivering food into the nest box with surprisingly short turnarounds of 5-10 minutes on at least two different days and then a week or so later they were feeding fledglings outside the nest box in the same tree and in an adjacent tree. However, when I opened the box today there was no nesting material present, just some fine fecal debris as is left when I clean the nesting material out of the boxes used by Tree Swallows or Western Bluebirds. So, do chickadees clean their nest sites? Sibley in The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Beha
vior states “The pair (parids) either cleans out the preexisting cavity of an old site or excavates a new one; the female usually chooses the nest site.” He doesn’t refer to removal of prior nesting material specifically so I’m not sure if the statement supports what I seem to have observed, namely, that they appeared to have cleaned out the previous years nesting material, presumably, in anticipation of building a new nest for this season. If there is anyone out there with experience with Black-capped Chickadee nesting who can shed some light on this question of whether they actually do clean out the prior year’s nesting material, I would appreciate your input.
Thank you.
Ted------------------------La Grande



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From: Ed McVicker <ed.mcvicker at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [obol] Black-capped Chickadee nest cleaning behavior
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:52:23 +0000
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