We first noticed a male House Wren visiting our Wren house on April 10.
By the 12th, he was working on a nest in the box.
On the 14th the female visited, and the next day she was in the box.
The day after that she was adding to the nest.
She laid one egg a day starting on April 29th, and a few days later the video record begins:
She clearly was aware of the camera, often keeping an eye on it:
She would often "scramble" the eggs, almost roughly turning them with her bill.
This went on for two days.
That's Mom's foot next to the baby. It spent most of its time sleeping, but when Mom brought a bug (usually a small grub), it would rear up its head, open wide, choke it down, and then fall over face first like a drunk passing out in a movie:
Some cute baby pictures:
They are born with fuzzy mohawks which persisted almost until fledging:
Mom was off the nest frequently to get them food; Dad would help, but she would always get it from him and feed the chicks herself. She always left as soon as she heard him sing.
Mom would periodically "scramble" the chicks, as roughly as she did with the eggs. She seemed to be counting them (at least making sure they were still breathing).
As soon as they heard Mom land on the house, their mouths would open:
When one needs to defecate, it's "bottoms up", and Mom catches it and takes it far away.
Wing feather shafts are showing:
That mouth looks big, but the bugs Mom brings almost always seem too big for the opening.
Starting to look like proper wings:
After this feeding, Mom decided it was time. In order to tease them out, she brought a moth but refused to give it to any of them.
She brought it to the hole and left again a dozen or so times, sometimes just flying around the box, and sometimes flying to a nearby perch.
The next morning we saw Mom feeding the remaining chicks and figured we has time to read the paper. When we finished, the nest was empty.
We saw nothing of the family until the week of June 12th. Then the male began singing near the box. On the 15th he was seen taking nesting materials into the box, and both he and the female were in and out of the box.
We have removed the camera: the box was really too small for the camera to show everything that went on, and the birds were clearly crowded by it. Since the second nest is built on top of the first, we knew it was time for the camera to go. Next year we hope to have a larger box with a chimney for the camera, and a House Wren-sized opening.
This clutch has a total of 5, so the next batch should hatch around July 9th (13 days after the last one was laid), and if they're on schedule, they'll all fledge on July 25th.