The boxes were paired about 10 feet apart,they each began building nest and the both began laying eggs ,Then All of the sudden,The TRES decided they wanted the other box.They moved in and began laying more eggs with the Wren eggs,even carefully adding nesting material under the the Wren eggs.I noticed the Wren was going in the other box where the TRES used to be.I thought for sure they would throw out the TRES eggs and rebuild another nest,But they didn't,she began incubating the TRES eggs.The start of incubation was a week apart,so I couldn't just switch everything.I was surprised some of the eggs hatched.I did contact a rehaber as soon as I noticed what was going on.Since TRES feed in the air,there was no way each Species would have survived once fledging.Here is the surviving TRES from the video,He/She was pulled from the nest just before it was due to fledge.It was released a few weeks later by the rehaber.

It's almost surreal that those little things are birds, much less chickadees. They started gaping very quickly and seem to be able to process the food the parent is shoving in the mouth. Is the mother still rotating the four remaining eggs? And do you think they'll hatch? Claire

It's absolutely clear that the babies are responding to the mother's chirp. She chirps and a lot of mouths immediately open (but she can only carry one caterpillar at a time! and there are eight mouths!) It's going to be a busy few weeks for the parents. Claire

I have a Mother Robin who has built 3 nests so far- the first fell out before she had finished, she started a second one on a slightly higher branch and then abandoned it and then began a third nest in the crotch of our copper beech. It's been in the 30's at night and I noticed she's no longer in her beech nest. I wonder if she's just practicing her nest building skills or if she's lost her eggs.