Checking the nest boxes on Friday in Vana-Kuuste in Tartu County it turned out that for the great tits that started nesting first, chicks had hatched. About 3 days old chicks were in the nest where the first egg was laid already on April 16. In addition a chick had just hatched in one nest box and in another nest box there were 1 day old chicks.

Just hatched great tit

1 day old great tit chicks

About 3 days old great tit chicks

For most of the great tits chicks will hatch within this week. A great tit usually lays 8-13 eggs, they begin incubating after having laid the last egg and incubation lasts 12-14 days.

In the nests with cameras the nesting proceeds as follows:
In nest box 1 the female incubates 11 eggs in the nest, the hatching of the chicks may be expected in the beginning of this week.
In nest box 2 there are 9 eggs and the chicks will probably hatch at the end of this week.
The nest in nest box 3 with 10 eggs was looted by a wryneck (see video record: http://www.looduskalender.ee/n/node/320 ).

Although the great tit laid a new egg in the nest on Wednesday it is not certain that nesting in this box will continue. At the moment no egg is visible but it may be hidden under the nest material..

The camera links are at the end of the Great Tit 2016 subject list.

See also recent entries in the LK forum: LINK