Blue tit nesting box.

[Dave H]

This weekend I took down the two nesting boxes that hang on the wall of our house.
One faced a little north of east and only had a few droppings inside. We know this was used by a single blue tit in winter as a roost. We'd not noticed any activity during the spring or early summer in this, quite likely because it faces in the wrong direction. This was cleaned up and hung on the North facing wall near the second box.

The second box was only put up in January/February and attracted immediate attention of a pair of blue tits. They were busy bringing nesting materials and then food to the nest. We thought that they had raised a family in there. When cleaning it out, aside from the nice soft nesting material (mainly moss) there was no bits of egg shells at all.
Do they remove the shells?

Dave

[PeterB]

Yes, they eat them I think. A successful nest will be quite clean and tidy. If chicks were reared there there will be a well defined cup in the middle.

[aquila 1]

Hi dave, you can tell if birds have reared any chicks, by the ammount of parasites you find in among the nesting material, I help with a survay every winter, the local conservation group bring me fifty nest boxes, and I analise every box, noting the materials used, any egg shell, number of parasites, and any foreigh materials, plastic ect, also what birds have nested, interesting but can be very itching. best regards mac

[Dave H]

I gave it only a brief inspection before tipping it into the bin (recycled of course).

Just three earwigs present.

From feeding activity we saw, there must have been some chicks we think.