House Martins at Quercus House - live web cams

Quercus House is QCR’s headquarters as well as the summer home to a colony of House Martins! The birds migrate here for the breeding season after spending the winter in Africa. House Martins return to the same nesting sites each year and we've been delighted to welcome them back in 2025.

Our (well actually their) nests are located high up under our roof canopy above our waste compactor workshop. The nest is built by both adults, using mud pellets, and lined with feathers and vegetation. A new nest can take 7-14 days to build, but ‘updates or fixes’ can be completed within just a few days.

House Martins normally lay four to five eggs at daily intervals. Incubation lasts for 14–16 days, but all hatch at the same time. The adults share the nesting and feeding duties equally and feed almost exclusively on flying insects like aphids and flies.

We usually spot these beautiful birds arriving back around April to early May time. Interestingly, the fledglings from a first brood often help Mum and Dad with the feeding of subsequent broods! Their autumn migration begins in September/October.

We hope you enjoy our live stream House Martin cams and that we can share this year’s QCR fledglings flying the nest. Follow our pages on social media for regular updates.