No alarms and no surprises, just birds growing up and leaving home

May 23, 2022 10:37 AM

“[ 11 chicks ! ] 79 days from nesting to fledging of Japanese Tit nest box (Parus minor)” is a fifty-minute video with some light jazz background music that provides exactly what it claims. Play it on a big screen in the background and mellow out.
posted by Going To Maine (12 comments total)

Prefer a livestream? “Warten auf den Ausflug der Kohlmeisen!” has you covered.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:39 AM on May 23, 2022

… or “LIVE Great Tit Nest Cam "Apple & Pie" 2022 - Recke, Germany”, or “Tschilpies - Berliner Kohlmeisen Livestream (great tit nesting box, Germany, 2022)”. I probably should have done more research first. It is I who am the Great Tit here.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:42 AM on May 23, 2022 [1 favorite]

We were at the cabin yesterday and I had placed a paint can over the small hole into the cable spool we use as a table on the veranda, which inspired a wild and flappity racket that required inspection. Indeed, a great tit had nested there, and it looked quite cozy. We gave it some peanuts and barleycorn to try to make friends. Not sure how it plans to get any eventually chicks out of the nest though.
posted by St. Oops at 11:05 AM on May 23, 2022 [6 favorites]

I probably should have done more research first. It is I who am the Great Tit here.

Might be hard to explain to HR that a video about Great Tits is in fact SFW.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:13 PM on May 23, 2022 [3 favorites]

My real-time reactions:

- why is there only one Tit?
- oh, there's the other one, with food, phew!
- the mouths are freaking me out
- freedom!
- those chicks really left a mess
posted by swift at 2:55 PM on May 23, 2022 [2 favorites]

Wonderful video—relevant as I am currently monitoring a bluebird nesting box. The five eggs hatched just two days ago, and the babies are frighteningly tiny and delicate naked dinosaurs. Their parents’ industry on their behalf inspires awe but also a little anxiety; watching those tits successfully raise all 11 hatchlings was most reassuring.
posted by kinnakeet at 7:00 PM on May 23, 2022 [4 favorites]

Might be hard to explain to HR that a video about Great Tits is in fact SFW.

me and mom learned new english word
posted by emmling at 3:17 AM on May 24, 2022

For the Americans, Great Tits (Parus Major) are among the most common birds here in Europe. I can hear them singing all day outside our place here in the Netherlands. A bird using a nestbox is most likely a Great Tit, too. They love those things for some reason.

The Paridae family is big and includes the North American chickadees which, for some reason, are not called Tits. I do like the name though as it is one of the distinctive sounds they make CHICK-a-dee, CHICK-a-dee, CHICK-a-dee over and over again.
posted by vacapinta at 6:14 AM on May 24, 2022

If you really want to experience full squee you need to look at videos of long-tailed tits. Tiny fluffy little white and black flying ping pong balls with long tails. It was a joy when a flock of these would just show up and frolic for a while and then leave. There are lots of beautiful birds in England but these are the ones I miss.
posted by srboisvert at 6:37 AM on May 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

This is nice.
posted by AlSweigart at 11:28 AM on May 24, 2022

So amazing, thank you for posting this video!

Inspires me to stick my butt up next time I have to poo, in hopes that the poo will be plucked clean from my butt
posted by cynical pinnacle at 1:42 PM on May 25, 2022

Update! Our spool birds had eight eggs that just hatched. The chicks are quite ugly in their newborn state and the parents are upset with us milling about, but the spool is right outside our only entry to the cabin so they'll just have to get used to us. They appreciate our peanut gifts anyway.
posted by St. Oops at 5:03 AM on May 28, 2022 [1 favorite]