Today was nest clean out day, where we collected all the nests from the old boxes. This prepares the boxes for use next year and makes sure that we have all the data that we need.

Today the last chick left the box, and so the nest is officially counted as fledged!

Today is the first day that the chicks could fledge on, because they are 16 days old today. A nest is counted as fledged when the last chick leaves the nest. However this nest is not fledged today. Most nests don't fledge until 18-20 days old. 

At this time the box shuld no longer be checked, because the chicks are 14 days old, and if the box is opened the chicks may fly out before they are old enough to survive outside the box.

Today is chick banding day. The tree swallow chicks are banded when they are 11 days old. At this age their eyes are open and the chicks are fully alert. The feathers on their wings are starting to look like actual feathers, and most importantly, their legs are scaly enough to put the band on. 

The nest box is starting to get a bit crowded with all of them in there!

The yellow "lips" on the chick's beak is called their gape. The bright color helps the parents know where to put the food, and the large size of the mouth helps the chicks to eat as much as they can. 

This nest hatched today! 

The little chicks are tiny and featherless and need to be fed constantly by their parents.

The male and female swallows from this box were caught today and banded: The male in this box had never been caught before today, but the female was first caught in 2022 in a nearby box here at Creamer's field and caught again last year in a box at UAF. I guess she decided she likes Creamer's field better because she is back again this year!

This nest has a full clutch of eggs that the female tree swallow is currently incubating. The eggs will be incubated for at least 14 days, so the first possible day that this nest could hatch is 6/11.

Here is the female sitting on her eggs. You can tell that this bird is the female because she is more green than her mate, and her belly is bare skin rather than having feathers, which is because she needs to be able to keep the eggs and young chicks warm.