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Blue tit housekeeping behaviour

Marchbanks

Marchbanks

Hat and Beard member
The camera inside one of my bird boxes is set up to email me a photo every morning at 6am. Over the winter it has been used as a roosting place. Here’s yesterday’s photo showing the tenant’s detritus...

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However, by this morning the cleaners had been in...

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Does this mean a change of occupant or possibly purpose (from roosting to nesting box?) And does anyone know how blue tits can be persuaded to extend this service to humans?
 
You don't know how pleased I am to discover this thread isn't about our government's domestic chores prowess
 
We’ve been delighted to see we have new residents in our box installed last year. They’re busy buggers so it wouldn’t surprise me that they have a spring clean. Our friendly mallard is providing them with plenty of feathers too.
I like the idea of a boxcam so will have to do some research for next year. What did you use?
 
If they were going to lay eggs in it this year would they not by now be under way? There has been a good food supply fkr a couple of weeks now.
 
stevec67 said:
If they were going to lay eggs in it this year would they not by now be under way? There has been a good food supply fkr a couple of weeks now.
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That’s really why I asked the question. It seems to be quite late, but if it isn’t in advance of possible nesting why is it being done?
 
ours are still gathering nest materials. Our camera had failed so no images this year.
 
It is still a bit early. They feed the chicks on small caterpillars and the egg gestation period is quite short (even though they can lay up to 14!). But they should be building the nest around now
Good luck!
 
They'll build a nest from nothing in only a very few days - they will pile an inch or so of densely packed moss into the bottom and them line a cup in one corner. Lining is rarely feathers - usually fine plant fibres, animal hair and what always looks to me like vacuum cleaner fluff.
They aim to hatch the first clutch to coincide with sawfly larvae and caterpillar abundance, and that needs a good flush of leaves on the trees.
A clutch can be into double figures if the parents have good feeding - 10-12 is common, but the weather would have to be perfect and the food supply even better for them to fledge more than 6 or so.
Second clutches are normal, third clutches are common in good habitat in years with good weather.

So, you can see why blue tit mortality, post fledging, is almost 100%. If it weren't, give it 5 years and we would be knee-deep in blue tits.

Apart from members of the crow family and birds of prey, which breed early in part to have plenty of young niave prey for their own young, (and odballs like crossbills), about all that will have eggs at the moment are blackbirds, possibly the other thrushes too, and some waterfowl.
 
Nero said:
It is still a bit early. They feed the chicks on small caterpillars and the egg gestation period is quite short (even though they can lay up to 14!). But they should be building the nest around now
Good luck!
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I know there is a lot of nest building going on right now - the hedges are alive with birds darting in and out, and one wren in particular has been doing a fine job of stripping moss from the lawns today.
 
Marchbanks said:
one wren in particular has been doing a fine job of stripping moss from the lawns today.
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Wrens are oddballs too - the males make 2-3 different nests (balls almost entirely of moss, pophole in the side), his mate chooses which one she likes and that is lined. They are all largely made by the cock, but unused ones are usually called cocks' nests.
 
Vinny said:
Wrens are oddballs too - the males make 2-3 different nests (balls almost entirely of moss, pophole in the side), his mate chooses which one she likes and that is lined. They are all largely made by the cock, but unused ones are usually called cocks' nests.
Click to expand...


Got a new name for my underpants.:)
 
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