Itty Bitty Birds Nest

[Imp]

I was outside today cleaning up the storm debris. I decided to clean out the 5 birdhouses I have in the back yard.
1 was empty
1 had the start of a nest
1 had a nest
1 had 2 nests, one on top of the other, the top one had a petrified bird in it.
and the last one, the smallest, had this in it. I have no idea why they didn't hatch. It's seems to be made of moss and cat hair.
The other nests were twigs and chicken feathers.

Imp

 

[Darlasmum]

So tiny- like a hummingbird ?---lucky you.

 

[redhen]

Sooo small! I've never seen such tiny eggs...

 

[Imp]

I did some research. It's a Black Capped Chickadee nest. I don't know what the others are.

Imp

 

[dewey]

Aww, what tiny little eggs....such hard work they did......sounds like your nests are gonna be full come spring, though.

 

[Bunnylady]

I was thinking Chickadee when I saw the moss. We often have Chickadees nesting in boxes that were set up for Bluebirds. Many, many (too many!!) years ago, when I was a kid, I remember a Chickadee landing only a couple of feet away from me to gather moss for the nest it was building; I was amazed that something so tiny could be unperturbed by something as big as a human. They are amazing little birds! Hopefully they will be successful this year.

 

[sourland]

As I was reading along, I was all excited that I could tell you that I thought it was a chickadee. You found out on your own, and Bunnylady beat me to the punch anyway.

For the past two years a pair has nested in one of my blue bird boxes - base of the nest is moss which is covered by soft and fluffy golden retriever hair.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Thanks for the reminder. It's time for me to clean mine out.

My guess on why they didn't hatch is that something fatal happened to the parent. I sometimes find unhatched eggs or even a dead baby in bird nests.

 

[Bunnylady]

My guess on why they didn't hatch is that something fatal happened to the parent.

My thought too, but I wasn't going to say it.

One time, I left cleaning out my bird boxes until a bit too late, and found a flying squirrel family in one! Momma and 5 little babies; she took off when I opened the box. I was horrified, but some quick research assured me that flying squirrels are pretty tolerant of people. I put things back the way I had found them, and watched from a distance until I saw the mother return to her nest. What a relief!

 

[Imp]

I have lots of Black Capped Chickadees in the yard, but I thought I'd seen them in the other boxes, so i assumed that those other nests were from them. Thought that this nest was from the tiny Bushtits. I found out that The Bushtits make hanging (pendulous) nests. I've found several of those as well, but only one that was salvagable. It's in the shed. So I identified two nests last night. I wasn't able to ID the other nests, will have to pay attention to the birds this year.
My winter project this year is to build a 10 room bird condo. If I get it done I'll post pics.

Imp

Squirrels would be kind of exciting.