Dead chick in Blue Tit nest box

[Insomniak]

Hi everyone,
I'm lucky enough to have blue tits nesting in my garden for the first time this year. I think 7 of 8 eggs hatched and now one chick appears to be dead, it looks as if the parents have moved it to the far side of the nest box.

What usually happens in a situation like this? Do the parents remove the dead one, or just carry on until the others fledge?
Should I try to remove it?
The last few days here have been pretty hot, getting up to around 22 degrees today, and just this afternoon I noticed a lot of flies around the nest box.

Advice, please!

[Picidae]

You should absolutely not go anywhere near the nest box while the young are in there and the parents are feeding. Leave them to it and keep your distance otherwise your 'interest' could bring undue attention to the box site and attract predators like Woodpeckers/cats etc. Parents could also abandon nest if there is human disturbance. They will probably just leave the dead chick in the nest. Often they leave them to the side of the egg 'cup' and continue brooding the surviving chicks. It's not at all unusual to have several dead chicks from a brood of 6-8 eggs. Natural food has been a little short due to cold/wet start to Spring but past week there's been lots more food around. Hopefully the others will survive and fledge.

[Insomniak]

Hi, and thanks for the quick reply.
I'm totally happy to leave them alone and let them get on with it, the recent hotter temps just had me worried, and when I saw the flies around the nest... well, I worried even more!
Thanks!

[logun]

I was wondering the same thing. 5 or 6 blue-tits fledged yesterday 7/06/10 and have been scrambling around my garden...all but one looking really plump and healthy. today, as all but a few had branched out into neighboring gardens i thought it safe to examine the now abandoned bird box. i was sad to see inside one solitary blue-tit dead in the corner..it was quite big but the heat must have been too much for it, either that or too much competition for food.

i was wondering how and why they leave any dead in their claustrophobic little homes...wouldn't this potentially bring disease. i also have a feeling they left their nest slightly early as none of the surviving birds were very confident about flying...a few even struggling to stand...maybe the parents thought it best to abandon the nest and live outside for a few days...after all the parents seem to still be about feeding them, which I'm not sure is usual. aren't they meant to be independent after leaving the nest?

[rossy]

no the parents will feed them for a good few weeks , that is normal, after leaving the nest. rossy.

[RKB]

It is very common (probably the norm) for a chick or two to die as they get older, as their demand for food increases but supply doesn't always match it. If the parents can carry the chick then they remove it, but if it dies in the last week or so they will leave it - they will be gone in a few days anyway.

It's impossible to say if a bird is "plump and healthy" just by looking at it, as they're covered in feathers. Sorry to say, yours don't sound too good. One dying, and the others struggling to fly suggests that they haven't been feeding well and are weak.

Blue (and other) Tits feed their young for another fortnight after leaving the nest, but they can move quite a distance together. Then the family will break up and the young disperse in different directions.

[logun]

trust me they are plump....ive been photographing and videoing them all yesterday and they definitely are. the smallest are same size as parents and the largest two are massive things! size might not indicate health though, that's true. remember, there was only 5 or 6...not a full nest of 13 or so. i have footage of them being fed non-stop for weeks so theres no worries there.

as for the struggling to fly, as i explained, they seemed to leave the nest a day earlier than you would expect and took several hours to find their feed or 'wings' i guess i should say (as i also said, they may have left because of the dead bluetit)...but looking out now the garden is empty so im sure they're doing just fine. they were scaling benches buckets barrows and tables for first few hours and then walls fences and eventually other gardens.

i'm feeling pretty confident about them. im also personally happy, first year with box up and a great result!

[Ian B]

Hi, we have bluetit family in our nestbox with 2 cameras to keep them warm! 9 chicks hatched and a few days later there appear to be 8. We,ve seen no corpse and the parents seem keen to remove any other "refuse". We've seen no flies, perhaps they are providing fresh snacks!

[Elizabeth B]

The parents usually try to remove a dead chick - they can easily manage this if the chick is quite small. Perhaps this is what has happened in your box.