Hi. Recently we have had a pair of blue tits in the garden, we've put up a coconut half and are hoping they'll stay and breed.
The other week I saw one of the pair on top of the garden hedge and it did something that I have not seen before.
As I watched, the blue tit hopped off the top of the hedge, and instead of flying away in whichever direction, it rose straight upwards for about five feet, had a quick look around and then flew out of the garden, a lot like a small yellow helicopter.
I haven't heard of this sort of behaviour before and wanted to ask if this is usual for blue tits and other similar birds?
Hello John, the various tits are very aerobatic; we used to see one particular blue tit hovering up and down our window like a yo-yo to attract our attention as they became familiar with our regime of putting out live mealworms for them, especially when the need to feed their chicks was more urgent. When the bowl was empty one or two birds would yo-yo (fly vertically up and drop down by the window, repeating this action) to request we topped up the mealworms !! I would say it is quite natural behaviour for them to do.