Let's forget the make believe, we now think that the image of the strange bird perched on the hole of Box1 is a new male bluetit searching for a nest site.
We'll go back to the start of the day.
These unusual looking movements are being made by a strange bird while it is being watched through the hole by another bluetit.
We are assuming that the bird inside is a new female and it is being watched by its male partner.
The view of the outside of the box at the time was this. The outside bird's head is well into the nest box.
This is the same bird a few seconds later. It has not left the hole.
It definitely does not look like Neptune - or Fantail for that matter!
This is the other newcomer back again for another look. We think this is the female and she is the one whose tail is so like Neptune's that some of our shots taken over the past couple of days could have been incorrectly described.
She then pops into the box.
[LATER - THIS IS NEPTUNE!! YOU CAN TELL FROM HIS BACK MARKINGS AS WELL AS HIS TAIL]
Here is the stranger female inside the box.
She has been inside several times now over at least two, possibly more, days.
She doesn't stay long, but before she goes she picks up a feather ....
.... and removes it!
By the end of the next 2½ hours she has removed every feather of significance from the nest!
She then seems to have done enough for the day. As of half past five, she hasn't been back except for a couple of brief visits at twenty past four and a quarter to five when she found two more feathers to remove.
[LATER - WE NOW THINK IT IS NEPTUNE THAT HAS BEEN REMOVING ALL THE FEATHERS!]