Bluetit Diary    Jun 2002 (4)

 

 

Tuesday 4th June, 2002

Life continues as before.  The chicks did not seem so hungry today.  Here they are at half past six in the evening looking almost contented.  Except for one chick, they are not even keeping an eye on the entrance hole!

The pictures today illustrate the differences between the  head feathers carried by male and female bluetits.  This is Victor just having fed the  chicks.  His top blue feathers are darker and more streaky than those of  females.  He also has a white band separating his head feathers from the navy blue collar around his neck.

This shows how different the female is.  Her head feathers are not as dark, they are more uniform in colour and there is no white band around the neck, the blue head feathers blend into the navy blue collar.

This shows them both side by side.  It is interesting how frequently Battler goes to the left and Victor to the right.  The differences in their head feathers are common to all the males and females that we have seen frequently at close quarters and learned to distinguish their sex from their behaviour in the nest.  Whether this is a difference only seen during the breeding season, or whether it is clear all the time is not apparent to us at this stage.

When last seen before turning the light off, Battler was roosting in the nest box but sitting largely on the side and not in the nest cup.