Bluetit Diary    May 2003 (49)

 

 

Wednesday 21st May, 2003

Well, all six of Fantails chicks are still surviving.  There are about 17 days between hatching and fledging so if you hatch out two days after your siblings, you have to struggle if you want to get your share of the food.  This may seem cruel but it ensures that if there is a problem getting enough food, the weakest chick dies quickly rather than all of them slowly.

To count the chicks, count the yellow beaks!

Chicks have to put up with a lot!

Here Fantail is cleaning the bottom of the nest.

Fred and Fantail have this thing about feeding the chicks personally.  Fred wants to do it himself but Fantail wants him to let her feed them.  Sometimes he insists and sometimes he gives way.  It always seems an amicable disagreement, even where as in the following sequence, Fred appears to push Fantail off the nest with his foot!

Fred comes in and appears to pass the food to Fantail, but perhaps he doesn't as in the second picture you can see him pushing her with his left foot!

And again here.  So Fantail moves away so that Fred can feed the chicks himself.