Bluetit Diary    Feb 2019 (2)

 

 

Monday 11th February, 2019

A bird is in Box1! 

Two birds!

The one at the top is the male and the newcomer at the bottom of the picture is the female.  They are already a pair. 

 Well, they were in the box together for a shot while.

As previous readers of this diary will know, this pattern of behaviour occurs regularly in the early part of the season, presumably to reinforce the two birds pair bond.  I can see no other reason for it.

The male goes into the nest box first, and if the female doesn't follow pretty quickly, he will hop up to the entrance hole and look for her.  Directly she arrives, he goes, leaving the female by herself in the box.

She usually follows him out of the box pretty quickly.  This time she was only inside the box for about 10 seconds.

An hour later the male is back.

Soon the female arrives . . .

. . . and so the male departs.  Sometimes he goes so rapidly the the two birds are not both at rest in the box at the same time!

This leaves the female by herself in the box again.

She doesn't stay long.