A pair of great tits appear to be getting quite interested in Box3. Much as I would prefer a bluetit pair, with the hole size set as it is, I cannot see the bluetits managing to keep the great tits out if they really want it.
A great tit arrives at Box3 ...
... to be immediately followed by its partner. Note that the bird on the nest box entrance hole has no tail - it must be Ferdinand again!
After about 30 seconds he is still on the entrance hole.
(I hope I've got the sexes right with these birds. A missing tail is too obvious for me to be able to hide my mistake if the tailless bird turns out to be the female! However, it's the tailless bird that is going in first so it's probably the male.)
Now the female has disappeared - Ferdinand is looking over his shoulder to see where she is.
However, he appears to go inside anyway.
Ferdinand inside Box3.
Now that Ferdinand is inside the box, the female comes back and looks as though she is about to land on the hole.
Beautiful wing feathers and a nice long tail!
Coming into land doesn't look quite so elegant.
At first I wondered whether Ferdinand was coming to the exit hole at the same time, causing the female to abort her landing at short notice, but there was no evidence for this from the record produced by the internal cameras.
She seems to have changed her mind and there is no picture of her on the entrance hole.
"What's she up to out there?"
Ferdinand flies up and looks outside to see what's going on.
By this time, the female is well away from the box. You can see her in the bottom right corner of the picture.
Twenty seconds later the female is back on the roof.
But Ferdinand has seen enough, or perhaps he is fed up with being messed about. Anyway, he is about to leave the box.
Here he is from above. Clearly a very tailless great tit!
Away he goes!
The lack of a tail doesn't seem to affect his abilities in any way!