Today I had one of my long held views about the role a male bluetit plays in preparing the nest for the chicks disproved!
Who is this bird on the nest box entrance? As this is Box2, it must be Della as it has some nesting material in its beak. It doesn't look very much like Della though. Perhaps it is an interloper?
Here she comes. You can see her beak with some nesting material in it on the left of the picture.
There she goes!
My goodness! This isn't Della at all! It's Sam, the male bluetit! What on earth is he doing bringing in nesting material? Doesn't he know that is the female's job?
There's no doubt about it, Sam has brought some nesting material into Box2!
He drops it in the same way as Della would do.
And here comes Della.
Sam crouches down as Della comes into the box in time honoured fashion. She doesn't have any nesting material herself!
Della is the bluetit at the bottom of the picture.
Immediately Della arrives, Sam decides it is time to go. At least some things never change.
Away flies Sam.
Just to make it quite clear that she is the female, Della does a nesting wriggle across the floor of the box.
To me, this is a great surprise. In the last 10 years of watching nest building, I have never before seen the male bring nesting material into a nest box. I will have to be more careful about laying down the law in future!