when do birds start nesting?

emo72

i assume different species start at different times? but with a stretch in the evening will they start now?

sawdoubters

they nest all year,are you talking aboit migrating birds,you should see nest building in march

emo72

sawdoubters wrote: »

they nest all year,are you talking aboit migrating birds,you should see nest building in march

they nest all year? are you sure? surely theres no nesting and building nests or raising chicks in the winter? no im not talking about migrating birds. robins and tits and blackbirds. im aware that wrens might roost in big numbers in the winter, but thats not what im talking about.

thanks for the answer, but it did surprise me! i never thought that birds would raise chicks all year.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

They do not nest all year round. They roost all year round but only nest at breeding time. You could argue that Pigeons can breed all year round but nesting time do vary among species.

Here's a nice little site which give breeding or nesting times for the more common garden birds.
http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birdindex.htm

Kess73

Have a feeling my robins are in the early stages of adding to my garden's population.



The regular male had a female tailing him since early December and last month he was bringing her mealworm and waxworm as part of the later stages of courtship.

But this week she vanished, and the male was arriving and carrying off two or three mealworm at a time, and this morning I spotted that he is bringing the mealworm to one of the next boxes I have up at the far end of one of my gardens.


And who popped her head out to grab the mealworm? The female who had been waiting inside the nest box.

Fingers crossed that in two to three weeks I am seeing both robins coming to grab mealworm, and a couple of weeks after that I get my first robin batch of 2014.


Am lucky that most years that I get a slightly early first batch of robins, but then again my robins tend to have access to live food all year round and as such can feed a brood a couple of weeks before robins in a area that has less food.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Yes, spring has sprung. They are more or less on schedule. If the winter is mild they can pair up in January and breeding starts in March. While it has been wet and windy the last couple of months have not been particularly cold and light levels are good, so Robins should be getting busy around now.

Great to see things taking off again. It gives the spirit a great lift.

Kess73

It really does give a lift when seen, be it in one's own garden or when out and about.

Then again I would struggle to find any time of year when nature is not doing something that has that effect on me.

Bsal

Starlings are bringing nesting material to the neighbours gutter/roof this morning, I love Spring

Capercaille

The Sea eagles in Mountshannon are back:), hopefully they will have another productive year.

Kess73

Capercaille wrote: »

The Sea eagles in Mountshannon are back:), hopefully they will have another productive year.

Fingers crossed.


I fish on Lough Derg quite a bit, and I know those birds caused many a blank session for me because once I spotted the eagles I ended up spending more time watching them than I did putting out line.

fryup

regards mountshannon....how are the chicks from last year?

Capercaille

fryup wrote: »

regards mountshannon....how are the chicks from last year?

No GPS on them so nobody would know I presume. Juvenile Sea Eagles travel widely for a couple of years. One of the GPS tagged Sea Eagles travelled to the Orkney in Scotland before travelling back to Ireland. The Sea Eagle named Star travelled to every County in the Country and has now finally settled in Galway, since he has become a full adult (4 years +). He has paired up with a female so hopefully he can raise chicks this year.

finix

A pair of blue tits are taking great interest in my nestbox the last 2 days. I have it up 4 years and no takers until this year, I reduced the 32mm hole down to 28mm with a metal plate and it seems to have made a difference. I saw one bringing in a feather an hour ago so it's looking good.