Bluetit Diary    Feb 2008 (11)

 

 

Monday 25th February (part2)

A great tit enters Box1.

This is the best picture we've captured so far showing the black stripe down the great tit's front.  This is supposed to show whether a great tit is male or female - males having a much broader stripe than females.

What's this bird's sex then?

This GT (or one of the GTs!) seems to spend lots of time in the box.  Here it's having a good preen - if it was later in the day rather than a quarter past eleven, I'd say it was preparing to roost for the night!

And again.

A nice shot of it leaving the nest box.

This bird's looking fierce!  What's going on outside?

Another great tit!  That's not the way it would greet its partner though is it.  Perhaps there is more than one pair of great tits after the box.

Better, but it's still upset, even though not as much as it was earlier.

The bird outside is still there too.

It's now 20 minutes later and Box1 has another visitor - a bluetit!

It gets much the same response as the great tit did initially.

The bluetit flies off - a disappointed bird.

Something's upsetting the great tit again.

This time it's a great tit back again.  Can the bird inside tell the difference?  Surely its partner would make its presence known by its calls in this type of situation?

Over an hour has passed.  A great tit approaches the nest box again.

This time there is no angry reaction by the bird inside the box.

Even when it lands on the entrance ...

... the reaction is muted.

Perhaps it's a friend outside, rather than an enemy?

Having spent much of the day inside the box, it was clear by about 17.30 that this bird was going to stay the night.  We therefore turned the lights off and watched the outside camera to see if it took fright and left to roost elsewhere.

A quick peek at a quarter to seven confirmed our opinion that it was roosting.  Another first for the season.

Perhaps great tits aren't too bad after all!