BTO state worst breeding season on record for Blue Tits in 2016
I am an avid bird feeder and enjoy, like many millions of other people, watching the birds and their antics in the garden. I have encouraged many birds to nest here as well, such as Great Tits, and Robins as part of my wildlife garden. As food becomes scarce, many wild birds find it hard in the countryside to find sufficient food to survive the long cold winter months. Blue Tits (Parus caeruleus) are daily visitors in my garden but mainly feed up for longer periods with more visits and larger flocks in the winter, amongst Great Tits, Long-tailed tits, occasional Goldcrest and Coal Tits. My feeders are always stocked up but this year, I most definitely have not seen anywhere near as many Blue Tits visiting as is usual for this time of the year. There is a noticeable absence of numbers and visits. The BTO Garden BirdWatch scheme has recorded the lowest number of Blue Tits using gardens during November since 2003.
Dead chicks as part of the outer nest inside a nest box
Female accepts nest box
Early this year, I watched as the female checked out the various nest boxes I have in the garden. They always display the same behaviour before accepting a box to nest inside. Landing on the nest box, hanging from the entrance hole, peck at the entrance hole, peeking inside, not going in, several more peeks, look around the nest box outside, peek inside, enter her head a little more inside, but not fully enter and this behaviour goes on until she finally accepts a nest box. Eventually over a period of several days, after many partial half body entrances, she will enter fully and stay inside a while checking out the decor no doubt! She will do this several times probably checking the flight path is clear of obstacles and checks out inaccessibility to predators. Once accepted the building of the nest starts.
Female makes the nest
The female does all the work building the nest using moss, grass and other materials including sheep’s wool if available. The male stands guard nearby and sings occasionally to reassure her and ward off other male Blue Tits. In this nest, you will clearly see she finished the top off with feathers surrounded by the bright green fibrous felt casing of a tennis ball that was inside next doors garden! Now for the eggs.
Snail shells
You will see in the video that I placed out numerous empty snail shells which I collect over the winter months every year. They are placed with the rim downwards and pressed into the soil. This allows the birds, including this Blue Tit female, to stand on or near the exposed snail shell and peck away at it and eat it. If the shells are not in this position, it makes it much more difficult for the birds get a purchase on the shell to peck and eat them. Birds need calcium for their eggs, and I saw her each evening during her egg-laying period, eat the shells and then go inside the nest for the rest of the night. The shells are utilised that night and by the morning are ‘used’ when she lays her egg. It was very pleasing to see this in action.
Disaster for this female and her brood
In 2016 the BTO reported that Blue Tits have had their worst breeding season on record. This concurs exactly with my own Blue Tit nest for 2016 experience. It has been my worst year ever for Blue Tits fledging from any of my nest boxes. In fact, when filming them I found some of them dead and stacked inside the nest box outer bedding material. It was very obvious that the female was not finding enough food. I failed to observe the male ever visit the nest, even when she was brooding the eggs. I assume he was killed sometime early in the egg-laying period perhaps? Males provide the female with food whilst she is brooding the eggs, which keeps her fit for the purpose of brooding. This could have affected her own physical well being. Usually, both parents are extremely busy at the nest boxes whilst feeding their chicks. This year there were ever so long periods of the female not visiting the nest at all. In all, 8 chicks were born and only 2 fledged. Not only did the wet and cooler weather here affect them, it also affected by Red Mason bee numbers.
Caterpillars as a food for chicks
Blue Tits nesting period is very closely associated with the abundance of moth caterpillars on trees such as oaks. I live near a large mixed woodland area where more caterpillars can be found than in the average suburban gardens. A cold or wet spell during this period can result in the birds not having this caterpillar crop to harvest for the chicks. Researchers have found that a large brood of Blue Tits in the nest may receive up to 20,000 caterpillars. That equates to approximately 100 caterpillars a day each chick. If only one adult is alive there would be a reduction of probably around 50%. Taking all this into account I think she did a great job of having 2 birds fledge.
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Really informative research undertaken by NERC scientists “The growing pains of blue tits” page 24
For more Blue Tit science information BTO Blue Tit
Download PDF Blue Tit: The Garden acrobat by Mike Toms BTO
Interesting BTO monthly Blue Tit blog
We usually get a pair of bluetits taking up residence in one of our RSPB nest boxes but this year a solitary bird is busy building the nest but does not seem to have a partner. I presume it is a female bluetit so it seems strange that she is on her own. From previous years observations it has been a male that has laid claim to the box and then enticed a female into it. Has anyone else seen anything like this ?
You have answered your own question Trevor, something which many people do not realise. The males find and defend the nest site. It’s the females who build the nests, the males stand guard. The book The Blue Tit by Martyn Stenning I can recommend. Cheers, George
For the first time this year we have blue-tits in our box with camera and it is exactly as you say, the female does all the work in the beginning! I actually thought she was on her own till after five chicks had hatched and I saw the male for the first time! appart from twice when she was brooding, Now he is here continuously! Shame I think more chicks would have hatched (she laid nine eggs) if he’d been around more earlier.
Males do not abandon their chicks, they are investing their future DNA in those chick sand they can be difficult to correctly ID as they flit and outof a nest box.
No I haven’t George. We have a female bluetit who is building her nest in the box but there is no male in attendance.
Sadly, I’ve had a similar experience with great tits. Out of six, only two have survived and flew this morning. Looking at the dead chicks I am guessing that two died about 10 days ago and the other two last weekend. Was lack of food the problem?
The birds nested in a bird-house I put onto the back of the garage four years ago and these birds being were first occupants. The male disappeared about a week ago and the mother was left with the job of feeding. Unfortunately, the bird-house was ‘visited’ by a magpie a few times and last Sunday this invader pulled one of the chicks out which flopped to the ground but was not obviously injured so got popped back in. A few days ago I noticed flies taking an interest so suspected that some of the chicks had died. I left the dead birds out in the garden this afternoon and on my return one was gone the chief suspect being the magpie. Also, the nesting material which I left in the bird-house has been pulled at effectively blocking the entrance. Is this the work of the magpie or might the rightful residents have done this so no-one else can steal their house?
Knock on the bird box and if you hear a buzz you may have a queen bumblebee inside. Birds don’t usually abandon chicks so something has spooked them at the nest or has happened to one or both adults.
We noticed on Tuesday that only one blue tit was feeding the babies in nest box, then on Wednesday no action at all and too early for fledging. Left it until just now as nothing happening at all and no cheeping from box. Unfortunately when we opened the box there were 6 dead babies and one unhatched egg there.
Very upset, never had this before I all the years of them coming to our box.
This is why many blue tits lay so many eggs. If one adult gets killed it can be very difficult for one bird to feed the chicks especially if there are not many oaks trees around. see this paper ‘Integrated behavioural and stable isotope data reveal altered diet linked to low breeding success in urban-dwelling blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus)
My wife and I have sat in the garden over the last few weeks watching a pair of blue tits make a home in our garden nest box, we have listened to the chicks chirping for food over the last couple of weeks and watching the parents come and go with food, unfortunately this morning the chirping as stopped and we have looked in the nest box and found around 8 chicks dead , is this to be expected or could it be the cold night last night.
Knock on the outside of the box a few times, you may have a bumblebee queen inside. If not and no sign of adults, clean out and scold with boiling water. This is why they lay so many eggs. In urban areas, they are not as successful as rural areas simply because there is a distinct lack of oak trees which provide the BTs with their forage.
We also have a single mother sitting on her nest in the box, where we have a camera, and feeding the chicks (9 eggs, 6 chicks hatched but can only count 5 hungry mouths now). There was another bluetit which popped in to to the box twice but we haven’t seen do anything else. We see a second one in the garden but he doesn’t go near the box. There is another chick looking a bit weak and doesn’t get fed enough so i’m afraid the number will go down to 4 😢
This is why they lay so many eggs Frances. In urban areas, they are not as successful as rural areas simply because there is a distinct lack of oak trees which provide the BTs with their forage.
My blue tit nest, in box with camera, has been fine. 7 out of 9 eggs have hatched. This am the nest was in a mess with many tail feathers in box. It seems that that the mother has no tail feathers and disappeared most of the morning whilst the other bird fed the chicks. She has some back this afternoon and looks a bit worse for wear. Weather changed from sunny hot yesterday to dull and cold today but the camera gives out a little heat so I can’t think its a change in weather. A bird attack?
Difficult to say Helen
I had a box with four or five chicks in one day couldn’t hear them box was was empty when looked they all looked ready to fly and healthy is that what they have done
Unless predated by another bird or even a mammal. Let’s hope they did fledge. Cheers George
During the first week of February I sighted a Blue Tit examining my nestbox and by March 27th nest building was well under way. The first chick began to look out on Monday afternoon and yesterday, between 12.00 and 13.00 I saw 5 fledge. There may well have been more. I saw an adult enter the box just once after 13.00 but no activity since. I assume that if there are still chicks in the box they will not have survived, but as it is a Woodcrete box I cannot open it to check. Comments from those more knowledgeable than I would be most welcome.
I have several woodcrete nest boxes and all open. I always clean my nest boxes out as there may well be all kinds of creatures, eggs or dead birds inside.
We had ten eggs laid this year and seven hatched, the female fed the chicks until last week, when only four servived, however when I checked the box this morning via the television monitor there was none that had servived, do you think that a magpie could have been responsible although the nest had not been disturbed
Birds such as Blue tits have evolved with magpies and other native predators of a very long time. They lay so many eggs to cater to this natural predation. See BTO nest boxes book for hole sizes. They may have fledged? Best, George
This happened to my babies last year something got into the nest two babies were dead and two alive. I kept watch and there was no sign of the mother or father. So I got the babies out and raised them until they fleshed. It was an amazing experience. I know have them back in the box again this year, fingers crossed.
What a lovely story Janet, thanks for sharing it! Cheers George
Just stumbled across this site. We’ve had a bird box in our small garden for the past 5 years which is often populated by Blue Tits. Just this evening I noticed a cat along the fence line which was rather ‘persistent’. I shooed it away about 5 times, but at around 9pm tonight I saw that the box had completely disappeared off the fence; the cat had managed to knock the whole thing off. I saw two hatchlings lying in the grass and was able to put them back in the box; there was another bird inside as you could hear it. The box is now secure and a lot of lemon juice has gone on my fence to deter said cat. I went out an hour and a half later; it’s deadly silent. 🙁 I’m really hoping that they’re OK (although in my heart I don’t think there is much chance now; especially as this occurred at night). Fingers crossed there is some ‘noise’ in the morning and no fat cats in sight.
Cats are super predators and never miss an opportunity to pounce! Cheers George
We have a nest box with camera, we have enjoyed watching blue tits nesting rearing their young watched them fledging etc over recent years, however, this afternoon we actually saw the mother killing her week old chicks , it was horrific, anyone know why ??
I would check out the topic on the RSPB site Marilyn, someone there may be able to answer or you may find it yourself? Cheers George
I have a nest box with a camera inside the roof, mounted on an outside wall of my lounge, approx. 6ft. above ground level and replayed onto my TV in the lounge.A blue tit has built a nest and laid three eggs two of which hatched about 8days ago and she was feeding them continuously during the day and sleeping with them at night.I missed looking for two days , switched on two evenings ago to find only the dud egg in the nest and no sign of mother or chicks. They were still bare flesh and no feathers so could not have fledged? (The round cosy part of the nest is barely 2 inches in diameter) What could have happened?
Too many things for me to start explaining all the things. Try the RSPB site or the BTO Trevor. Cheers George
We had 9 eggs laid, only 8 hatched. Babies died gradually and we were left with 2 babies, who looked ready to fledge. On Wednesday eve checked camera and they were fine. When I got up Thursday morning, checked the camera both had died. Not sure why? So all babies died. So sad. Mum blue tit kept returning to the box with caterpillars on Thursday, as though she was hoping they wouldn’t be dead
Just wondering if other birds may have frightened the babies to death? We have a multi bird feeder in the garden that attracts lots of bird interest. Any advice? Thanks
Aw! Its hard to say though the weather and finding food plays a much larger role than we appreciate as we can put a coat on and go the shops for food. Cheers George
Around 3 weeks ago the 4 remaining blue tits in my nest box fledged, nine eggs laid, seven hatched but two chicks died after several days. The remaining five were doing well being fed by both parents, sadly another chick died a few days before the remaining four chicks fledged on a sunny Monday morning.
I was waiting for the weekend to take the box down and remove the dead chick and clean the box out. To my amazement there was another blue tit in the bird box on Thursday morning and it was pecking at the dead chick. I had a shower and started to get ready for work when i noticed the chick was gone, the blue tit had removed it from the bird box.
The new blue tit laid six eggs, as of today they are starting to hatch.
I have had a camera in my bird box for eight years so my kids could watch as they grew up but have never had two clutches in one season before.
Hm. All the info I have read stated for the UK, that they only nest once, but hey, you may well be right. Perhaps a very late nesting BT?