Goldcrest Nesting: Nests, Eggs and Baby Goldcrests

Everything about Goldcrest nests: where and when they nest, the hanging nest and its eggs, the chicks and fledglings, nest boxes and the law. For the bird itself, see Goldcrest identification, song and facts.

Usually high in a conifer. Across its range the nest is slung among the vertical twigs of a conifer branch, 4 to 14 m above the ground, and on Atlantic islands in tree-heath or, now and then, laurel.¹ In Britain it usually sits well above the ground, out towards the drooping tips of a level branch, where most predators cannot reach it.²

Goldcrests need very little: a pair can nest in a single yew in a churchyard or a garden. So a garden with a mature conifer or yew can hold a nest.

Across the range, nest building starts at the end of March, and most nests are found from the first week of April. In Britain first clutches are laid on average on 2 May, and anywhere between 14 April and 13 June.³ Second clutches follow later.

It is a remarkable piece of building for so small a bird: a deep cup with thick walls, in three layers. The outside is a coat of lichens, the walls are moss bound with spiders' silk, and the inside is padded with small feathers, up to 2,500 in a single nest. Both members of the pair build it, and it hangs from the twigs rather than sitting on a branch.

In British nests a clutch is usually 6 to 8 eggs, and can be anything from 2 to 12. The eggs are tiny, about 14 by 10 mm.³ The BTO and the RSPB both note that a clutch of 12 weighs about one and a half times as much as the female who laid it.⁴ Across the range, second clutches are slightly smaller than first ones.

Only the female incubates. In British nests the eggs hatch after 16 to 19 days.

Both parents feed the chicks, which leave the nest after about 16 to 18 days in British nests.³ Birds of the World gives 17 to 22 days across the range.

Once out of the nest, the young are fed by their parents for another 12 to 18 days, a figure from across the range. A fledgling Goldcrest is dull, with no coloured crown.

If you find a fully feathered fledgling on the ground, it is usually best left alone: its parents are usually nearby and still caring for it. Keep people and pets away, and move it only if it is in danger, a short way into cover.⁵

Goldcrests raise two broods a year, and a pair will often start the second before the chicks from the first have fledged. The RSPB notes that large clutches are essential to the population, since so many Goldcrests die in winter.

A Goldcrest hangs its own nest in the twigs, and it is not on any of the BTO's lists of birds most likely to use nest boxes.⁶ Keeping mature conifers and yews leaves them places to nest.

The nests of all wild birds are protected while in use or being built. In England and Wales it is an offence intentionally to take, damage or destroy the nest of any wild bird while it is in use or being built. In Scotland the offence also covers doing so recklessly, and interfering with the nest.⁷ In Northern Ireland it covers doing so intentionally or recklessly.⁸ Goldcrests can nest in garden conifers and yews, so check before cutting or felling them in spring and summer.

1. Martens, J., Päckert, M. (2020). Goldcrest (Regulus regulus), version 1.0. Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie and E. de Juana, editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology. doi:10.2173/bow.goldcr1.01
2. Risely, K. (2014). Goldcrest: species focus. Bird Table 78 (BTO Garden BirdWatch magazine), Summer 2014, pp. 18-19. Accessed 9 October 2026. Source
3. BTO. Goldcrest (Regulus regulus). BTO BirdFacts. Accessed 9 October 2026. Source
4. RSPB. Goldcrest. RSPB Birds A-Z. Accessed 9 October 2026. Source
5. RSPB. Injured and baby birds. RSPB advice. Accessed 8 October 2026. Source
6. BTO. Nest boxes for birds. BTO, Helping birds. Accessed 9 October 2026. Source
7. UK Parliament (1981). Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1. Accessed 7 October 2026. Source
8. UK (1985). The Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985, article 4. Accessed 7 October 2026. Source