Long-tailed tits and their nests-where do they make them?

Although called Long-tailed tits, they are not actually members of the tit family. Their requirements are different from those of other tit species and each species have evolved to eventually specialise in different aspects of their lives due to the competition. Each species finding different niches, such as habitat, food resources, ranges and foraging techniques. A noticeable difference is plain to see in their nest building.  Long-tailed tits are recognisable by their undulating flight, a tail much longer than its small, pinkish body and generally flying in a small flock, are also known  ‘flying teaspoons’. You generally hear them before you see them as they flit along in small flocks. They often nest in hedges/bushes/brambles or thickets, making them difficult to find, particularly after the leaves have opened. The ones I have found have all been in hawthorns, blackthorns or brambles, making them harder for predators to reach. They may also nest in the fork of a tree trunk and branch. Whenever I have been lucky enough to find one, it has mostly been before any leaves are fully open or my attention has been raised by hearing the characteristic sounds that they make when they return to their nests. They are early nest builders so look out for them in late February or March before the leaves open. Their nest are beautifully elaborate as the film below shos.

 

Found complete 24th March 2011

Found complete 24th March 2011 Speke Hall 6 foot high hedge

Nests made of moss, lichen, spiders webs and lined with feathers

The birds, being small, need insulation as they carry very little body fat. Like a wren, it is one of a few birds that makes a roof dome over its nest, which helps to retain warmth. Magpies do the same although that is to protect them from crows! The delicate nest resembles an old fashioned purse with a small entrance hole on one side near the top. It is made of moss woven with cobwebs and hair, finished off with pieces of lichen. The cobwebs are used to bind the moss to nearby branches and twigs and allows the nest to stretch slightly, handy if the 6-8 eggs hatch and the chicks get larger! It is also used to weave and stick the lichen pieces to the outside of the nest, each piece of which is collected by the birds and held in place by the cobwebs. The dappled effect it makes, really helps with the camouflage, when used against a tree trunk or as in the nest above, against the sky.

Beautiful film kindly sent by John Walters. Visit his website www.johnwalters.co.uk

No dome on this nest yet, still under construction!

No dome on this long-tailed tit nest yet, still under construction!

Thermoregulated nest using feathers

Whilst the nest is still open like this one, the male and female birds line the base with on average over 1500+ feathers! The birds can actually regulate the temperature within the nest and accurately gauge how many feathers they need! Prior to the roof being made, the birds will still roost with their flock mates overnight. Once built though, both birds will roost inside the nest. This nest was about 4′ 6″ off the ground in a dense thicket of blackthorn which itself was along the front edge of a small deciduous woodland in Birchwood Park along a south-facing edge, boarded by grass. I watched a bird in this nest, trampling down inside, then snuggle into the cup moving and jiggling around, I suppose making the inner cup shape of the nest.

Long tailed tit taking 1 of the possible 1500+ feathers to line the nest!

Long tailed tit taking 1 of the possible 1500+ feathers to line the nest!

Long tailed tit next to partially built nest

Bullying males keep warmest!

When building a nest, searching for all those cobwebs and feathers requires a lot of time and energy. Being insectivorous and being early in the year, this must be a difficult time to find their insect food. Unlike other tits, their beaks are very small and weak. Nor are they capable of holding an object under a foot in order to hammer it open. So carrying away or a nut, berry or large seed from your bird feeder is not possible. They may visit your garden feeders with their flock mates(!), with whom they prefer to roost overnight in small groups, keeping each other warm. The males bully their way to the middle, where it is warmer. The colder the night, the closer they get to each other. Unlike other tit members, they do not roost in tree holes overnight, even in winter. Its no wonder that in cold winters the fact that these birds are more dependent on insects than the other members of the tit family and their inability to make use of seeds and nuts, many long-tailed tits perish and it can take several years of mild winter weather for their numbers to become numerous again.

The long tailed tit nest now has a domed roof

The long-tailed tit nest now has a domed roof

Flocking and family units stay together for winter

These birds would have been part of a small party of long-tailed tits, throughout the winter months. They break away to make their nests during the day and return to the roosting flock for the night. Sometimes I have seen a few blue tits or other tit species tagging along in such daytime flocks, along with other birds such as nuthatches. It is their familiar ‘tsirrip’  sound that usually grabs my attention before I spot them. Flocking offers them more opportunity to spot predators and food on a daily basis, as well as learning where food resources are, such as fat balls in gardens. Food is far harder to spot when alone.

Long tailed tit outside its nest

Long-tailed tit outside its nest. Yep, that’s a good job!

You can clearly see the greyish lichens on the outside of the nest, helping to camouflage it amongst the dappled shade. It is even more effective when the leaves fully open around it. How do they decide which one collects the silk, moss and lichens?

 

Good morning!

Good morning!

Feeding preferences and where they feed

Time marches on and one bird was inside, presumably the female who would be laying or sitting on some eggs. The male would bring fresh insect food to her, which it will have found in the cracks of twigs, branches, on leaves and leaf buds of several trees including birch, oak, ash, sycamore and hawthorn. It is unlike other tit members in that it practically never comes down on the ground in search of food. Being much lighter than blue and great tits, they forage high in the trees amongst the thinner twigs inside the canopy and on the outer edges, pecking in and around holes. This strategy enables them to live alongside their larger heavier cousins, blue and great tit that themselves forage on different parts of the tree, being heavier, as well as the ground. They have a preference for hawthorn in the autumn, oak in the middle of winter, where there may be numerous winter moth eggs with birch, maple and ash after the beginning of March, then switching back to oaks again March/April to feed on small caterpillars etc.

 

Long tailed tit returning to nest entrance

Long-tailed tit returning to the nest entrance

Food choices

This bird returned to the nest. It may well be the male with some insect food such as greenfly, insect eggs, spiders or caterpillars for the female. It went inside after the photograph was taken.

Long tailed tit nest ransacked by a predator

Long-tailed tit nest ransacked by a  predator

Predators 

Even though this nest was extremely well camouflaged in the dense vegetation and protected by a dense blackthorn thicket, some predator found it and destroyed the nest. It would be difficult to say whether these feathers are from a resident adult, a young long-tailed tit or feathers that were part of the insulating inner liner. As this looks rather fresh and was taken on 7h May, it may just be the nestling fledged some time ago. It would appear to me that the nest had been attacked and destroyed by the predator being on top of the nest. Tearing open the roof and then searching the inside by grabbing material and casting it aside. This would be consistent with a magpie, jay, or crow, finding the nest and decided to see if there were any chick or eggs inside the nest to feed to its own young or feed itself. Whereas a grey squirrel, stoat or weasel would enter via the entrance hole, search by smell and sight, leaving without destroying the nest in this manner.

Reuse nest?

As these are very delicate nests that would have to stand empty throughout the winter months, the damage caused to them, the probability that they are infested with some pest or other e.g. mites, and the fact that predators will know exactly a nest is and be mindful of any new activity there, would I suspect, lead adult long-tailed tits no other option than to build a new nest in a new location.

Nest helpers

If young birds were taken or the adult breeding attempts failed, they may help to rear the nestlings of other birds that formed part of their winter flock, to whom they may be related. Researchers have also found a failed breeding long-tailed tit helping to rear an adjacent brood of great tits!

Long tailed tits will eat fat in winter

Long-tailed tits in gardens and winter foods

Although not as regular visitors to gardens, as perhaps blue and great tits, and only fleeting visits when they do visit, if one bird from a long-tailed tit flock happens to explore your bird table or feeder, others from that flock will follow. They do travel fast though, the larger the flock, the faster they go. In this way, all the flock birds will learn another food resource and benefit from it. Why they do not stay in my garden for longer feeding or other places I have seen them feeding is difficult to comprehend. You would think that upon finding a useful and plentiful resource, they would stay much long. But no, off they go on their travels after a quick snack.  I have found that initially the fat balls tend to be rather difficult for the weak beaks of the long-tailed tit to break into. They become more frequent visitors after the fat balls have been ‘worked’ upon by other larger birds, including blue and great tits, exposing more nooks and crannies for their beaks to explore and feed upon.

Fat and high energy food is vital for them

During the mid-winter, they can spend 90% of their day searching and feeding. The amount of food they consume and overnight temperatures can directly affect their survival rate overnight. Keeping warm requires energy and energy comes from food. High calories can be obtained from fat. If you do n’t like the idea of smearing fat on tips your tree branches, when you put your fat balls out, just weaken the outside of it first to enable the ‘flying teaspoons’ to feed! They may feel uncomfortable at bird tables, where there may be numerous other birds feeding and squabbling. They may have to dig around in the bird food on the table, wasting valuable time, which they do not generally have, to find something useful that they can eat. They are not great seed, nut or fruit eaters, though can manage peanuts in feeders that have softened or been bashed a little. Finely grated cheese, yes, but not Danish Blue, please!

A recipe for success!

Peanut butter is great, (no hydrogenated fat though!) full of fat and protein and easy to smear on tree branches and where the branches meet the tree trunk. This recipe has been used with great success for many birds including long-tailed tits, blend dried mealworms and dried fish food together to make a fine powder then mix with the peanut butter. It does make an ideal food resource, but do n’t get caught making it, your partner/family/friends may not bee too pleased! This will draw the birds in, but perhaps not people! Do n’t forget some fresh water daily.

If you would like more information about garden birds and their food choices go  British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) or better still join Garden Bird Watch and add your information and observations for scientists to update their research.

A lovely BBC Springwatch film of nest building long-tailed tits

Refs: Besides my own observations, experiences and photographs;

Perrins, C.M. (1979), “British Tits: The New Naturalist”, William Collins Sons & Co,Ltd, London

Toms, M. & Sterry, P. (2008), ” Garden Birds and Wildlife”, The AA, Basingstoke and the British Trust for Ornithology, Thetford, Norfolk. * A book I can wholeheartedly recommend.*

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