シジュウカラの子育て(3)、巣立ち前の2週間 Titmice raising their young (3), 2 weeks before leaving the nest

今日は子供の日ですが・・・・。

3月中旬の巣作りを経て、4月18日頃に孵化（ふ化）したシジュウカラですが、その後、毎日、3メートル先、目の前で感心、感動しながら親鳥たちの子育て奮闘記を見ています。

餌やりの回数は一日150回を下らないでしょう。時間的には朝5時頃から夕方の7時頃までで、実に14時間の長時間労働です。

巣の中の幼鳥は10匹すべてが個体差なく順調に育っています。小さな円形の巣には大きくなったヒナ10匹全部は入りきらず、巣の中には4匹、残りはコケのクッションの上で4匹、2匹ずつ寄り添っています。（5月4日現在、写真）

ヒナは外部の敵（猫や蛇など）に気づかれないように声は出しませんし、糞は親鳥が遠くへ運びますので巣箱の中はきれいです。（ビデオ、30秒、https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B4a-CddnNDF6S9BDVK-LCrga2NwvEs65/view?usp=share_link）

餌を運ぶ親鳥の個性も異なっています。

メスはいったん餌を持ち帰って入口近くの枝にとまり、10秒ほど周囲の様子をうかがいます。

オスは丸い入口に片足をのっかけてとまります。

巣のあるハナミズキの木にも餌があり、メジロの家族が飛来しますが、何故か、シジュウカラのペアは数百メートル離れた木々まで餌を捕りに行っています。

最近、親鳥は少し離れた場所から幼鳥に聞こえるように大きな声で鳴いている時間が増えています。

これから一週間以内には巣立ちするでしょう。

It is Children's Day today ・・・・.
After nesting in mid-March, the tits hatched around April 18, and since then I have been watching the parent birds' efforts to raise their young with admiration and excitement every day from three meters away, right in front of my eyes.
The parents feed their chicks no less than 150 times a day. The feeding time is from around 5:00 in the morning to around 7:00 in the evening, a long 14-hour workday.
All 10 young birds in the nest are growing well without individual differences.

The small circular nest cannot accommodate all of the 10 birds, so they are nestled with 4 in the nest and the others on the cushion of moss, with 4 and 2 separately, (as of May 4, photo).
They do not make noises so as not to be noticed by external enemies (cats, snakes, etc.), and the nest inside is clean because their droppings are carried far away by the parent birds.(Video, 30 seconds, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B4a-CddnNDF6S9BDVK-LCrga2NwvEs65/view?usp=share_link)
The parent birds carrying the food also have different personalities.
Once the female brings back the food, she perches on a branch near the entrance and watches the surroundings for about 10 seconds.
The male perches with one leg over the round entrance.
There is also food in the dogwood tree where the nest is located, and a family of white-eyes fly in, but for some reason, the titmouse pair goes a few hundred meters away to catch food in the trees.
Recently, the parent birds have been spending more and more time singing loudly from a short distance away so that the young birds can hear them.

They will leave the nest within a week.