First Nestlings at Day 3

Here is the same group of nestlings as before, now three days after hatching. As you can see, the fifth egg did hatch. A moment before this photo was taken, they were all flopped down, but my camera made a little chime as it turned on, and the sound triggered their gaping reflex. They went from flopped to this position in the blink of an eye.

Box 9 nestlings at day three

We also found today that our expected second hatch at Box 16 had indeed occurred, with five more nestlings just a day or two behind Box 9. We were lucky enough to catch the first batch with one egg still unhatched, so we had a very close idea of when those hatched. This second box probably hatched either Monday or Tuesday, but we can't be sure exactly when.

Box 16 nestlings at day two (?)

And in case all these little squirming shrimpy things with gaping yolk-yellow mouths make you a little squeamish (I confess they have that effect on me if I look at these pictures too long), let's close with a reminder of what they will become, with a little luck and a lot of care and feeding from their doting parents, in an amazingly short period of time. This was a pair of birds on the wire above one of the other boxes we checked today.

Female (top) and male bluebirds