Subject: Re: Black-Capped Chickadees Nest Habits
Date: May 12 08:39:55 1997
From: Mike Patterson - mpatters at orednet.org




About 20% of nest boxes that I place for Tree Swallows along edge habitats
are used by Chickadees (all but one of these BCCH over 8 years). Chickadees
build their nest here on the Columbia using moss, lichen, animal fur and
down. Most chickadee nests show a curious chipping around the hole of the
box which I do not find associated with boxes used only by swallows.

I have not been able to eliminate the possibility that these are caused by
squirrels, rats or woodpeckers. It may also be some kind of hole preparation
behavior that chickadees do. Any observational data on chickadee entry hole
preparation would be useful.



>
>Saturday a Black-Capped Chickadee pair immediately inhabited a cedar =
>nest box based on the design recommended in a message by Mike Patterson =
>some time ago. The box attracted the Chickadees within 10 minutes after =
>attaching it to a post in the back yard. The flew back and forth all day =
>Saturday and Sunday. I noticed a woodpecker like pecking inside the box =
>at various intervals. My searching on the internet failed to reveal any =
>details of how chickadees build their nests. If anyone has details =
>please enlignten me. They were bringing large amounts of moss to the =
>nest but I couldn't detect anything else being used as nest materials. =
>Thank you.
>________________________________
>Dave Stiles
>New Business Development
>425-635-0709
>ASIX, Inc.=20
>visit our web site at www.asix.com
>
>

--
*********************************** I got the blues so bad one time
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