Great tit babies dying

Romlar 03/05/2023 15:47

I'm new here so not sure if it's the right place for any advice or help. We have great tits in camera box. 6 hatched. 3 have now died. The male never came back after feeding a bit for 1 or 2 days but the female is obviously not coping but sits on them so much instead of feeding them, very rarely she comes with food. Why is this and can we do anything to help?

Billy from Consett 09/05/2023 15:00

Not sure that there's much you can do. I got in boxes of live mealworms I put out for a blue tit dad to help him feed the 8 babies (after the mother went awol - probably taken by a cat or bigger bird). It worked in the sense of most of the babies eventually fledging.
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Romlar 09/05/2023 15:27

Thank you for your reply, unfortunately all 6 have now died. Strangely the male suddenly appeared after being no where near the box after 2nd day of hatching, but only about 1 day before the last little one died. So sad. No idea what happened as she kept sitting on them instead of feeding regularly. I did think of live mealworms but the starlings & other birds will take the lot. How did you prevent this so only the tits could take them? As I want to try this next year.
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Billy from Consett 09/05/2023 15:43 in reply to Romlar

It's not easy to stop other similar sized birds from grabbing what is extremely sought after food.
I got a caged feeder that wouldn't allow bigger birds to get in. The sparrows and the like would still help themselves but the blue tit dad got plenty.
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Romlar 09/05/2023 15:47

Thank you.
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