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I put up a new nest box last November and blue tits have been interested to the extent they carefully removed all the shredded paper (provided with the nest box) I had put in. Hubby has just installed a camera for me. The box floor now has poo in it, presumably from the blue tits who were spring cleaning and very likely roosting there some nights.
My question is, should I leave the poo, or would it be better to clean it out? I am worried about doing too much in case I frighten them away. You never know which beady eyes are watching when you get a ladder out!
Cheers, Linda.
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Is it definitely a blue tit ?
Yes, he's a bluetit. He went for a little walk round the box before he settled down, so I was able to see him, albeit in black & white..
Unknown said:Is it definitely a blue tit ?
Hi all
Is he definitely a male bluetit? Now we've all seen buzzard's links.....
Best wishes Chris
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LOL Chris!!!!
I have no flaming idea!!
However, he/she is still with me every night from dusk. He/she even paid me a visit 3 or 4 times this morning, just fleeting visits, and each time leaving with a fluff feather in his beak. I am now convinced "it" is building a nest elsewhere - and if so that is the worst piece of ingratitude I have heard of!!
It is most likely to be a she. All the literature says that it is normally the female that roosts in the box prior to nesting.
Thanks Trochilus,
I will have to stop calling her a him. She is there right now, fast asleep.
Does anyone know if it is normal for sleeping birds to fall over? Mine does!! Good job she isn't on a perch or she might have a nasty accident!
Hi Sparrow, I wondered this when you mentioned it kept falling over the other day, all I could think is because she's sleeping on a smooth floor she's got nothing to cling on to so falls over all the time, if she was in a tree or bush she'd cling onto a branch.
There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.
Hi BBB,
That is probably the right answer. Also, I think she is sleeping on one leg, making it doubly difficult!!
Are you sure she's not a he lol, mine likes to make things difficult.
I hope she starts building a nest soon, have you heard of any Blue tits starting to nest yet.
Trochilus said: It is most likely to be a she. All the literature says that it is normally the female that roosts in the box prior to nesting.
I wonder if this literature was mainly written before camera equipped boxes were so widely available? This is our tenth year of viewing bluetits and great tits, and we can usually tell which is the male and which the female when a pair start visiting the box.
In March 2005 we had a bluetit roosting in Box 1 - and we knew for certain this was the male, because we saw them mating there. He fouled the box, and though the female cleaned it up at first, she soon stopped doing this - and it seemed clear that this was just his "bachelor pad". At this time a great tit kept looking in the box and was clearly desperate for a nesting site, but the hole was too small for him to go in. We enlarged the hole and the next day the female started some serious nest building. The whole story can be read from April 9th 2005 here: http://www.biggonline.co.uk/
We know several people with camera equipped boxes, and they have also found that a roosting female will keep the box clean - unlike a male. Maybe she's "genetically programmed" to do this since she spends a lot of time keeping the nest clean after the eggs have hatched?