A Busy House

The female Chickadee (Paridae) has built her nest. I expect by now the eggs have hatched and both the male and the female are out searching for caterpillars, spiders and insects for their young.

A bit of a timeline: One to two days after the female builds the nest, her eggs are laid. She incubates the eggs for about twelve days before they hatch. All this time the male Chickadee takes care of his mate by bringing her food.

Upon hatching, these new birds are naked and blind but within a week, though still with eyes closed, they are growing feathers. The female now goes out searching for food as well.

At eleven days old they have grown their feathers and have opened their eyes. At two weeks, or just a couple days longer, the fledglings are able to fly short distances. After a couple weeks of guidance and feeding by their parents the juveniles are on their own to face the wide world.

Published by

Brenda Clements Jones

Brenda is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, a Habitat Defender for Shenandoah National Park, and a devoted fan of Mother Nature. She lives in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, and hikes up to the higher elevations of her mountain often to see what nature is up to. Her constant hiking companion is a camera that captures nature as it unfolds through the seasons. It’s her goal to share the natural world around her through her photographs.