Backyard Birding with Mr. Hunter: Chestnut-backed Chickadee Nest

Mr. Hunter's family has a wooden birdhouse hanging in the backyard, and one day this summer we noticed the sounds of baby birds chirping from inside the birdhouse.  A family of chestnut-backed chickadees had moved in!  (See video down below.)

Later in the summer, once the chickadees had fledged, the wire holding the birdhouse broke and the birdhouse fell onto the ground.  So we got a peek at the nest that the chickadees had made.

Here's video of the chestnut-backed chickadee parents outside the birdhouse:

Side view of the nest.

We could see bits of bottlebrush woven into the nest.

A close up of the nest.  You can see some red strands of bottlebrush
in the mix.  And that dark area at the top of the picture
is the top of the hole where the baby birds must have been nestled.

In case you were curious, we did rehang the birdhouse, and we also put the nest back out into the backyard, in case other birds would like to make use of the nesting materials.

July 2012