I have a bird box with a camera in my garden and for the last few weeks (this April) a blue tit has been working hard visiting regularity and building what now looks to be a finished nest. The female has also spent the night in the box on a few occasions. However the last few days she has turned up less frequently and now to no sightings at all. I have a bird feeder in the garden close to the box and I believe I sometimes see the male and female briefly but they soon fly off elsewhere. My question is do blue tits sometimes take a break from the nest box and later return to lay the eggs? Unfortunately quite a few magpies visit the garden and think they may have put the blue tits off visiting the box on a few occasions. Maybe this could have happened? I have definitely seen the female bird hide in the box until the magpies have gone. Also I'm aware there is always the threat of neighbourhood cats predating birds.Any help or advice or to learn of other peoples experience would be most welcome. Thanks Nick
Hi Nick , I am no expert am afraid but I do know that having a feeder close to the nestbox ain't a good idea as this makes it a busy area and a threat to the nesting birds. Hopefully the link below will be more helpful than me and give you an insight to bluetits nesting behaviour www.bto.org/.../blue-tit-diary
(Pardon the Scottish Accent)