Nesting birds

[cisamcgu]

When do birds start to build their nests ? I have just seen about 10 sparrows in my garden pulling bits off the pampas grass, and I presume they are using it for nesting; but I would have thought that it is too early


Andrew

 

[radger]

I assume it's around this time, because all the crows, jackdaws and magpies round where I live are flying around with huge branches in their beaks for the past couple of weeks.
And looking very smug with it, if you can imagine a smug-looking crow.

 

[ianrauk]

Spring is sprung,
De grass is riz,
I wonder where dem birdies is?
De little birds is on de wing,
Ain’t dat absurd?
De little wing is on de bird!

 

[Amanda P]

Pigeons and sparrows are pretty randy all the time. Pigeons have bred succesfully every month of the year in the UK.

Birds start singing and doing breeding stuff anytime it's sunny afer the solstice. Rooks and sparrows are particularly visible doing it. Some even start making actual breeding attempts very early, although sadly a period of frosty weather will stop them.

Laying eggs and incubating takes lots of energy, and lots of food. If it's cold and you have to spend all your energy just keeping yourself warm, you won't have any left over for making eggs or incubating them.

Doesn't stop some species trying though.

 

[Amanda P]

I once started a project to ring rook chicks, to see what happened to rooks, how they dispersed, how many got shot and so on.

Lots of birds time their breeding attempts to match food availability (eg blue tits time it so that their eggs hatch just when those green caterpillars you find on oak trees are at their peak numbers). Not rooks. They aren't synchonised at all. Some start stupidly early, others leave it until very late. You'll have noticed that rooks like to nest in noisy groups, right at the very tops of tall trees (usually).

The result is that you sweat your way up a fifty-foot tree and spend half an hour frolicking about in the spindly twigs at the top of the tree to find that only one or two of the twenty nests up there have chicks in. So you come down and climb another tree to find the same thing. And another, and another, by which time you're knackered.

You do the same next week, and the same happens. And the next week.

After the second season of this rigmarole, other avenues of research become more inviting.

 

[gbb]

Pigeons and sparrows are pretty randy all the time. Pigeons have bred succesfully every month of the year in the UK.

Birds start singing and doing breeding stuff anytime it's sunny afer the solstice. Rooks and sparrows are particularly visible doing it. Some even start making actual breeding attempts very early, although sadly a period of frosty weather will stop them.

Laying eggs and incubating takes lots of energy, and lots of food. If it's cold and you have to spend all your energy just keeping yourself warm, you won't have any left over for making eggs or incubating them.

Doesn't stop some species trying though.

We have a pair of pigeons at work (bloody nuisance..you cant have pigeons crapping eveywhere in a food factory). They've taken up residence on top of a sheltered building and must have had at least 4 or 5 lots of youngsters in the last 6 to 9 months. Theyve been quiet while the snow and colds been here, but they're getting lively already...

 

[Arch]

After the second season of this rigmarole, other avenues of research become more inviting.

Like studying tropical fish in the Maldives?

 

[Amanda P]

Hmm. Not really into fish (except the kind deep-fried in batter). They've got some interesting birds there, though.

 

[Fnaar]

I always get a sense of wellbeing when the housemartins come back (not the 80s pop sensations, you understand). Usually April-May

 

[rich p]

The blue and great tits have been inspecting the nest boxes in our garden for a month now but I'm not sure if they're building the nest yet or just house-hunting prior to making an offer.
I know that many small birds in recent warmer winters have been tempted into nest building and egg laying earlier and earlier. As a consequence the chicks have died due to a cold snap and lack of food stuff. This year has been cold enough for that not to happen, I would have thought.

 

[Arch]

Hmm. Not really into fish (except the kind deep-fried in batter). They've got some interesting birds there, though.

I was thinking of excuses to snorkel. I suppose you could float on your back in the sea and study the birds as they flew over...

 

[Amanda P]

I know that many small birds in recent warmer winters have been tempted into nest building and egg laying earlier and earlier. As a consequence the chicks have died due to a cold snap and lack of food stuff.

I and a couple of mates run several nest box schemes around the Moors. We've seen exactly this happening. It's heartbreaking to open box after box and find not just dead chicks but dead parents in there.

We also reguarly ring sand martins at a colony on the river at Helmsley. For the last three years there have been floods in late summer that have washed them all away, quite literally, and the bank they nest in.

On the other hand, it's nice to find ringed birds in the same boxes year after year - if they survive their first winter, even small birds can live quite a while.

 

[Cubist]

Blue tits have been measuring up the boxes in my garden this week. One pair love the alarm box on the back of the house, and have returned for the last three years at least. It's just level with the kitchen window so we can watch them coming and going all day.

 

[rich p]

Blue tits have been measuring up the boxes in my garden this week. One pair love the alarm box on the back of the house, and have returned for the last three years at least. It's just level with the kitchen window so we can watch them coming and going all day.

I hope you don't get burgled during the nesting season!

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

Uncle Phil is too modest to mention that if he's a licensed ringer then he's an expert birder. I'll put my lower level oar in and say that the local ravens started nest building several weeks ago.