*** Update on the great tit nest ***

As you will have noticed, there was a dramatic event in the nest box yesterday late afternoon. The mama tit got caught in a long hair or thin thread in the nest and could not free herself. In desperation she tried to leave the nest box through the hole. Unfortunately, the thread still hadn’t come loose and so the titmouse was hanging outside the box, flapping wildly.
Luckily I was at home at the time and saw the whole thing directly. So I could intervene because the titmouse had already strangled itself. I was able to free it in time, but it seemed to have been so traumatised by the whole thing that it didn’t go back into the box for the rest of the day, until it was dark.
Now, however, 4 chicks had already hatched in the course of the day. They were now in danger of freezing to death. With the help and guidance of the Wildvogelhilfe emergency group on Facebook, I built an incubator for the young birds and put the chicks in there together with the nest. Unfortunately, the chicks did not survive the night.
As there were still 4 eggs in the nest, I put the nest back into the nest box early this morning in the hope that at least the chicks in the eggs would survive the night and the titmother would come back into the box. Shortly before sunrise the titmother did indeed return and, after some initial hesitation, sat down on the nest and brooded on the remaining 4 eggs. Until this afternoon at 16:38. Then she left the nest box and never came back. So unfortunately we have to assume that the chicks that haven’t hatched yet didn’t survive the night either. ?
I will now clean the nest box and hope that the titmice will make a second attempt.

I would like to appeal to all pet owners on this occasion: Many dog and cat owners put the combed-out fur of their four-legged friends outside in spring with the best of intentions as nesting material for the birds. However, as you can see here, these hairs can quickly become a death trap for the birds because they can get caught in the long hairs. Chicks, which are only a few centimetres tall, are particularly at risk. If you still want to put the fur of your beloved four-legged friends outside, I would ask you to cut the hair small with scissors beforehand so that the hair is no longer than 2-3 cm. This way the birds can’t get caught in the hair so quickly. Thank you very much!