Six Eggs in the nest as of Tuesday April 21, 2026
This spring I built a nest box with the hopes that some Chickadees would nest in it. It looks like it is successful and there are some
Black-capped Chickadee
building a nest in the box.
This seemed like a great opportunity to set up a live feed camera and this page shows the highlights.
I am have various video clips as time allows and there is a live view link below. Both the live view and video clips have sound. The live feed is through YouTube, apologies for the occasional ads.
(c) 2026 Dan Dietrich Photography
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Six Eggs in the nest as of Tuesday April 21, 2026 |
Click on this link for a live view of the nest box:
Live Chickadee NestCam View On YouTube
The table below contains saved video clips from the nest box.
Description |
Link |
| April 1, 2026
The recommendations for a Chickadee nest box included a note to add some wood chips to the bottom of the box. Adding wood chips (or shavings) to a chickadee nest box simulates a natural, rotting tree cavity, which encourages them to nest. Chickadees will excavate these shavings to prepare their nest, acting out natural behaviors. I added about 2 inches of wood chips thinking they might remove some and start their nest with the remaining wood chips. This video shows the Chickadee removing the wood chips. |
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| April 3, 2026
Much to my surprise, the Chickadee removed all the wood chips and did some pecking on the bottom of the nest box. You can see the drain hole I drilled in the center of the nest box bottom. |
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| April 5, 2026
The nest building started slowly but then picked up pace. |
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| April 7-8, 2026
The Chickadee spent the first night in the nest box. This clip is from 3:42AM |
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| April 8, 2026
The nest building is coming along nicely, she is adding some finishing touches today. |
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| April 10, 2026
The Chickadee is spending every night in the nest box. Her day starts around 6:00 to 6:30. |
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| April 16, 2026
The Chickadee is starting to lay eggs now. The first one appeared on the morning of April 16. |
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| April 17, 2026
The second egg appeared on the morning of April 17. |
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| April 18, 2026
The third egg appeared on the morning of April 18. |
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| April 19, 2026
The fourth egg appeared on the morning of April 19. |
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| April 20, 2026
The Chickadee is covering her eggs so I cannot see if there was a new egg today. She is also still adding nesting materials. |
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| April 21, 2026
Incubation seems to have started today, April 21, 2026 Incubation lasts about 12-13 days for Black-capped Chickadees which would mean hatching could start around May 3rd give or take. |
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| April 28, 2026
The male Chickadee brings something to the female while she is sitting on the eggs - it looks like an insect. There is also a video of the outside of the nest box during this feeding. For the outside, I have a "low cost" camera but it seems the video quality is not what I was hoping for (you get what you pay for). |
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Robin NestCam Archive from 2022