Blue tit activity

Must be a thrill to be able to watch the Blue Tit inside the roosting/nesting box; ours have been inspecting various boxes out since January and the constant pecking around the nest hole is faimilar practice for them as they stake their claim to the box and keep a close eye on their future nesting site, sometimes, as yours does roosting in the box overnight. It's still a bit early for them to be preparing the nesting materials but next month the female will start the process, generally she will prepare the nest alone but not to say the male won't help out now and again and often bring food to the female as well ! she will pluck feathers from her chest area creating a brood patch when she will incubate the eggs once she has laid virtually all of them - laying one egg per day. Takes about 2 weeks before hatching. The male will step in when the busy feeding of chicks is required as each nestling may require up to 100 insects/oak leaf caterpillars, etc., per day !! Blue Tits will time their egg laying to coincide with the abundance of emerging caterpillars. We offer the blue tits live mealworms to help them in this exhausting process of feeding chicks. We do not place food anywhere near the nesting box or nesting site so it doesn't attract unwatned predator attention.
Hope this female continues to use your camera nesting box as it will be thrilling for you to follow the process and eventually witness those little blue/grey/yellow fluffy masked bandits taking their first tentative flight as they finally leave the box around the beginning of June. Good luck.

Thanks Hazel for your comprehensive outlook on the behaviour and pending actions. I’m really excited, particularly taking the video clips in to school to show the children, I know my staff members are equally excited

A funny story aside, just after Feb half term holiday I told an excited staff room I was going to be a dad (me, a 55 year old dad of two!!) and then I showed them the video footage, ha ha

Nice to chat Hazel enjoy the pleasures of spring

Regards Rob

That`s all very interesting Rob-aswell your story and videos , aswell all the great information Hazel knows.
I was told aswell that especially Blue Tits try to "occupate" two, three, four nesting boxes before choosing one.
I do think it´s much better to provide moss, wool outside, like Hazel wrote, not stuff it in the box. They just would get it all out again and start new, if not even disturbed.
Good luck - I`m curious how it goes on.
On my balcony and window sill is a box each , one was used 4 times, one once, but so far only by Great Tits , though Blue Tits inspected them. The preferred box had even a hole so small to discourage other birds than Blue Tits, but the Great Tit´s squeezed through anyway. So the next season I made the hole a bit bigger again, as I´m happy with any residents :-)
Cheers & regards Mart

Hi, I've just signed up to the forum as something strange seems to have happened this weekend. Like Rob i have a box with a camera in and a pair of blue tits have been happily preparing their nest in there for a few weeks now. Yesterday I switched the camera on for a look at what they were up to as I'd not seen them going in and out this weekend and there were 8 eggs but all of the nest material was gone. In past years I've seen the blue tits disappear leaving eggs behind but I've never known them strip all of the nest out and leave the eggs? Has anyone else experienced this or know what may have happened?

I've enjoyed reading this thread and the blu etit blog that Hazel put a link up for.

Thanks, Phil

Hi Phil, thanks for the contribution, I don’t have as much time reply on week days due to school, but I was really interested to read the comments albeit sad ones. I’ve not had any nest building yet and certainly no eggs, but a blue tit who is still sleeping overnight. I’m hoping to see some nest building action in the coming weeks
I hope things improve with your brood.

Rob

Bit of an update from me, I just this minute saw a blue tit going into my box. First time in a while, so I switched the camera on for a look. There is still no nesting material in there but now there are only 4 eggs in there as opposed to the 8 that were there last week. The plot thickens........

Evening everyone, I’ve been busy with work and away from home, my recent short video below, confirms the blue tit is still active and sleeping overnight in the box, but I’ve tried to capture a short video, and I ask for some advice or confirmation. Do you think we can see some preening evidence on the floor of the box? There seems to be a shadow around the areas to the right of the sleeping bird

Rob