Date: 10/18/24 6:56 am From: Alfred Maley <alfredmaley...> Subject: [NHBirds] The Prodigious Nest of the Great Crested Flycatcher
There is a Wood Duck nest box on a 14 foot 4x4 post in our yard that is
regularly used by Wood Ducks; the young fledge in late May. I quickly clear
the box a little and top off the sawdust as needed and wait. Almost
immediately the Great crested Flycatchers take over the box and the female
begins to make a nest of white pine needles. They prefer this nest box over
all others in the yard (perhaps because of its height) so we helpfully
place a pile of pine needles nearby. The young fledged uneventfully, as
they have for the past several years, and the family was last noted in the
yard in early September.
Today I climbed up to remove the flycatcher nest. No snakeskins, no
cellophane, but one feather each of Wood Duck and Barred Owl. The needle
nest was 8x8 inches square and 4 inches deep. That’s a lot of needles. It
seems that these flycatchers build their nest to fill all the floor space
allotted to them, sort of like humans filling up closets, no matter how
large they are.
