Bluetit Diary    Jan 2007 (11)

 

 

Monday 15th January, 2007 (part 2)

This was the state of Box1 just before10 o'clock this morning.  Although a great tit has been roosting there for over a week, the box is still pretty clean.  There is just one dropping left from last night.

At 10 o'clock, she enters the box and immediately starts to clean it.

She collects the dropping ...

... and takes it outside and drops it somewhere - presumably well away from the nest.

In less than a minute, she's back to do some more housework.

She's already got rid of most of it, so this time she has to try a bit harder.

She's still at it!

Here she's about to go  ....

... on her way with another load.

A minute later she is back!  This continues until she has cleaned the floor of the nest box as best she can!

Compare this with the way a roosting male  treats his nest box (this was Carlos in 2005)!