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The great tit, (Parus major ) the most studied bird in the world! Although its preferred habitat is deciduous woodland it is very familiar in our gardens as a frequent visitor to feeders and also frequently using nest boxes. With a summer population of around 2 million pairs here in the UK (2000) and its widespread distribution, it is very rewarding to attract a pair to use a nest box you have put up for them.

Great tit nest box – all looks quiet at a first glance!

Many birds will use a nest box with a hole, including blue tits, sparrows, wrens, treecreepers and a host of about 60 other species! In fact the size of the entrance hole can determine the species of bird that will use it. For example a great tit needs a 28mm diameter hole and the blue tit uses a 25mm hole entrance. This nest box has been used by both great and blue tits in the past.

Great tit checking out nest box

Females usually check out the nest boxes and if in situ over the winter, may use it to roost in during the cold nights. This one was used over the winter by a great tit.  This may or may not be the same female. Sometimes they spend several minutes outside and then fly away. Eventually she will venture inside, no doubt to check the decor! If it is to her liking she will attract the attention of the male with his bolder and wider black stripe running down his breast as a badge of status, usually on guard nearby, with his familiar ‘teacher teacher’ call to assure her he is watching over her and remind other males he is there and this is his territory. The calling will decline as the nest season progresses.

Great tit female checking out internal decor before deciding to move in!

Once inside and after consultation with the partner, the pair then take several days to construct the nest itself. I helped out here putting out feathers from a pillar, small piles of dried moss from the garden, hamster bedding material, horse hair and sheep’s wool gathered from barbed wire alongside farmers fields. This would save the birds a lot of time and energy searching for warm, insulating nesting material. Then I let nature take its course……after which the female has to find a source of calcium and gorge herself before laying her eggs………..for more info….. http://bit.ly/szORPY

After sitting on her eggs for a couple of weeks……the result of her hard work?

Young, blind and featherless great tits- bet they are glad of the nesting material I put out to keep them warm!

The young helpless great tits have an almost insatiable appetite. All of the nine eggs in this nest hatched, now for the parents the real fun begins! Eat, sleep and grow! That is the life of these chicks for the next 3 weeks or so. This will be the parents’ only brood so they are determined to keep their young alive. It is their way of ensuring their DNA is passed on to the next generation.

Great tits- naked, blind and helpless- We want more food!

The parents will feed their young on a variety of invertebrates such as aphids, spiders, small beetles, caterpillars, bugs and other juicy insects, all full of protein to aid the growing birds to develop a sound bone structure. Not being as agile as other smaller tits, the great tit will regularly use the ground to search in its quest to find food and has even been seen climbing up and down tree trunks, similar to the nuthatch, so putting out live meal worms, which are really beneficial, in a saucer on the ground where the adults will readily take them with profound thanks!

Great tits growing larger inside the nest box

The diet is obviously working, which by now will include some small seeds, these great tits are growing with the plentiful food the adults are bringing to them. In fact one BTO researcher , Dr. Andy Gosler, who studied great tits for many years, calculated that the effort feeding chicks was equivalent to us humans bringing home over 100 kgs of shopping EVERYDAY for 3 WEEKS!!!

Great tits growing- soon ready to fledge from this crowded nest box

After their high protein diet of insects, the adults slowly introduce seeds to their young. For example, I often watch the adults taking sunflower hearts from my feeder and taking them straight away to the brood. Its high energy, oils and minerals makes it almost a complete for for birds at this time of their soon to be perilous lives!

Great tit- what are you looking at? !

Once all the chicks have fledged, the parents will still feed the young and travel some distance to find food, which will now include food put out by us in feeders and on tables etc. At this time unless food is available many may die. If lucky the parents will be around to show the youngsters how to hold food items and how to deal with large caterpillars, which are capable of clamping their jaws on the inside of the throat of young birds as they are swallowed by them, if they are not killed first. The adults kill the caterpillars by pecking their heads, in the process destroying the troublesome jaws, whilst holding onto the prey with one foot, the other foot grasping the twig or branch upon which they are sitting. They will also show them how to peck at larger seeds to break them into smaller more manageable pieces. After a couple of weeks the young will leave their parents and are independent of them.

Blue tit shouting to neighbouring great tit family ” Hey keep the noise down will you. I have a family trying to sleep in here!”

Just 10 feet away opposite the occupied great tit nest box a pair of blue tits successfully raised a family themselves.

Stuck for a Christmas present? Wanting to give your loved ones something different? Want  more information about garden birds, feeding and nests go to :    http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw

A quick snippet of information…..

Did you know that the bill of a Great Tit is longer in the summer than in the winter? Research by Andy Gosler and others has shown that winter bills are deeper and shorter, useful when tackling beech mast, whilst summer bills are narrower and longer, which makes it easier to grab insects. Their bills wear down during the course of the winter and grow in the spring. The amount that the bill shape changes also seems to depend on the percentage of beech mast present in the winter diet, which is linked to availability.

Not only does bill shape change between seasons, there are also differences between the sexes, with males having chunkier bills, especially during the winter. In winter feeding flocks, males and females will often feed in different ways, on different food items. The difference in bill shape may not be as obvious to us as it is for a Curlew, where a male may have a bill as short as 83mm and a female as long as 167mm, but it’s enough to make a difference when it’s time to look for lunch.

 

Stuck for a Christmas present? Wanting to give your loved ones something different? Want  more information about garden birds, feeding and nests go to :

http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw

Refs….Besides my own experiences and observations….

Chris du Feu, (1993), ” Nestboxes. BTO Guide 23″, British Trust for Ornithology, Thetford

Perrins, C (1979), “British tits”, Collins New Naturalist Series, London

Toms, M & Stery, P (2008) ” BTO- Garden Birds and wildlife”, AA Publishing, Basingstoke, Hants

Web info used….

http://blx1.bto.org/birdfacts/results/bob14640.htm

http://www.bto.org/news-events/e-newsletter/e-newsletter-library/story-archive/did-you-know