SF Bay Chestnut-Backed Chickadee Nesting Box Webcam, Spring 2022

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The bird nesting boxes are in my suburban back yard on the San Francisco south peninsula.



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The chestnut-backed chickadee nestlings fledged on May 1, 2022. On April 30, a Bewick's wren started building a nest in another nesting box.

Spring 2022 wren nest:

A pair of Bewick's wrens started building a nest on April 30, 2022, and finished it within a few days. They visited the nest briefly almost every day for about 6 weeks, but they never roosted on it or laid any eggs.

Spring 2022 chickadee nest timeline:

  • Nest building Mar 4-9: Nesting material brought in, 20 to 200 trips per day
  • Roosting starts Mar 9: Daytime away, nights on nest
  • Egg laying Mar 21-26: Daytime away, nights on nest; 1 egg laid per day
  • Incubation Mar 26 - Apr 9: Most of day and all night on nest
  • Hatching Apr 8-9: Most of day and all of night spent on nest
  • Fledging May 1: All 5 hatchlings fledged

  • Time lapse video, chickadee nest building, feeding, and fledging in 3+ minutes

    There was a second, late-season nesting attempt that failed, probably due to lack of available food so late in the dry season:

  • Nest building May 18-23
  • Egg laying May 27-30 (4 eggs)
  • Incubation May 29 - June 12
  • Hatching June 12 (2 eggs hatched, 2 did not)
  • Hatchlings die June 22 & 25
  • Spring 2021 chickadee nest timeline:

  • Nest building Mar 6-16: Nesting material brought in, 20 to 200 trips per day
  • Roosting starts Mar 28: Daytime away, nights on nest
  • Egg laying Apr 5-10: Daytime away, nights on nest; 1 egg laid per day
  • Incubation Apr 10-23: Most of day and all of night spent on nest
  • Hatching Apr 23-24: Most of day and all of night spent on nest
  • Growing Apr 24-27: Frequent feeding and waste removal
  • Care crisis Apr 27-29: Care-taking crisis results in loss of the brood

  • Nest building May 3-6: New nest built quickly, up to 300 trips per day
  • Egg laying May 10-13: Daytime spent away, nights on nest; 1 egg laid per day
  • Incubation May 12-26: Most of day and all of night spent on nest
  • Hatching May 25-27: Most of day and all of night spent on nest
  • Growing May 26 - June 13: Frequent feeding and waste removal; rapid growth
  • Fledging June 16-17: Young birds leave the nest

  • You can view previous season activity by following the links below.

    © 2022 Gray Chang
    SFBayNestCam [at] gmail [dot] com