Edward Plumer: Carolina Wren in the Nestbox

Finally, a real bird nesting in this year's boxes with the new camera system. We have had ants, bees, wasps, and several false nest starts. Ironically, another Carolina Wren. The last wrens that nested in our yard, used a hard hat in the shed after rejecting my bird house. Given that Carolina Wrens may have up to three broods in a season, this may in fact be the same pair.

I had angled the cameras with a bluebird, chickadee or titmouse in mind, trying to get more of a side view. Unfortunately, the nest building style of the wren is to fill the box nearly to the top ... right over the camera. I have had to thin out some of the obscuring twigs a few times. Here, you can see the camera almost on top of the eggs.

Both male and female were actively involved in the nest building. They started on top of a fake nest that was made by wrens a month ago. The female has been incubating the eggs for about a week and sits on them most of the day. The camera is pretty much right in her face. These boxes are much darker than the martin gourd so I never get to see any images in daylight spectrum.

June 29 - Hatching started this evening at about 16:45.

June 30 - Many different food offerings including spiders, katydid, and this small snail which the adult finally had to eat.

July 2 - Danielle planted milkweed in the courtyard to attract monarchs. We found a Queen Butterfly chrysalis and caterpillar a yesterday in one of the plants. A bit of a miscalculation on combining hobbies. Here is the wren feeding the chicks the chrysalis ... perhaps she ate the caterpillar. We thought the milkweed was supposed to make these taste bad.

July 3 - An iPhone nest check today confirmed what I could not see in the video stream: all four eggs have hatched.

July 4 - It is clear these are not Titmouse chicks. They already have much longer bills. This shot finally shows all four visible in the nestcam.

July 7 - pin feathers on wings and back

July 10 - I am pretty sure we only have 2 surviving nestlings. Hopefully, the adult removed them. I can see much more feather on the head and back than a few days ago. The color photo shows that the feathers unfurling from the shafts have a tan color.