Bluetit Diary    Feb 2006 (4)

 

 

Tuesday 28th February (part3)

In spite of his precautions, she almost lands on top of him!

A quick shuffle past her ...

... and he's away!

In creating a nest for their chicks, the male's job appears to be limited to getting the female to take a look at a possible nesting place.  He plays no part in nest building and only starts feeding the female when she is incubating the eggs.  He doesn't even appear to do that very often - it's only when the chicks have hatched that he regularly brings food to the nest box.

The female often takes longer to look around the possible nesting site.  However, you can see from the time stamp that the last 4 pictures were taken within one second - the male doesn't hang around once the female has appeared!

She is still there fifteen seconds later.

After another 15 seconds, she's had enough and jumps up to the nest box hole ...

... and leaves!