Hi,
I have a nest box which was used last year successfully by bluetits.
This year I have a camera in the box and have seen them working very hard building a nest - finishing off with feathers about 2 weeks ago !
Since then there has been very little activity during the day, but the nest box is occupied every night by a BT.
Does this mean that the nest has been abandoned or is there still a chance that the female will start laying ?
Regards
Keith
Hi Keith, I would say it's a little late in the season now for a blue tit to start laying eggs as we're around the time when blue tits would begin fledging. It would take around five weeks from laying eggs to fledging which would mean July if she laid eggs now - in which case that would exceptionally and unnaturally late. Perhaps an early attempt failed at nesting in which case they decided to try again and the female built a new nest in the box but perhaps the tit may now be using the nest just to roost in instead. Only time will tell !! At least you can keep watch on the camera which is good.
For interest here is some information on their natural breeding times.