Below is a heavily cropped photo of a coal tit with its beak crossed over!
The bird seems healthy enough, flying around and feeding on new shoots as well as all our feeders and managing to fly away with food, so it doesn't seem to be causing any issues.
However, I'm curious, is the beak deformed, or is the coal tit able to cross over its beak (which I know some birds can and do) to suit its feeding needs?
The coal tit has been around again, on the feeding dish, and the plumage is looking more bedraggled.
A quick bit of research, coal tits lifespan is around two years, so my guess based on the first sighting, early April 2020 and looking very much an adult bird, this will be its second year, but as always, if the info I've found is wrong, please feel free to correct me.
The feed dish has a good mixture of sunflower hearts, seeds and suet pellets among other things, so the coal tit, as do other birds (and squirrels) there is plenty to chose from. However, the coal tit seemed to be picking the sunflower hearts.
Definitely a sunflower seed in the beak....
But, not for long, or was it the husk, I'm not sure.
Not to be beaten, in for another attempt or was it seconds....
And a falling sunflower seed, or was it husk!
Determined not to be beaten....
Unknown said:Aww bless that little Coal Tit with the overgrown mandibles; if you have any white sunflower hearts in that dish of goodies, it may be easier for the tit to de-husk them rather than the harder black sunflower seeds; I used to crumble up a bit of Peckish mealworm suet for our birds which, although won't be a good enough diet for the chicks, will sustain the adult if she can also get intake of seeds for her/himself. Hopefully you'll see some of its offspring soon. Coal Tits will cache food too but guess that happens more outside of busy breeding season.
Thanks for that info Hazel, we'll try and ensure there will be sunflower hearts to make the hard survival that bit easier. I say try, without keeping watch 24/7, others will step in and help themselves as you know.
But you have to give the poor thing 20/10 for trying and managing.
I'm beginning to have a change of thought over this birds activities, a positive change after watching it yesterday afternoon, where it was very very active, feeding itself successfully and then flying off with food, coming back, feeds itself, then gathers more food to fly off, this as going on all afternoon.
I thinking it may have a family.
This black sunflower seed was cracked open, the husk was left in the tray
This meal worm was eaten.
It was spending a lot of time atop this leylandii
This will probably be the final posting on this thread.
I've not seen this coal tit since the lat posting, around mid-May, whether it has moved on to new pastures or nature has taken its course, I've no idea.,but if nothing else, the at last sighting it did seem to be coping as well as the others.
These birds do have a very short lifespan, whatever, it has soldiered on regardless.
Unknown said:Hopefully it is still doing ok Mike, we had a Blue Tit with very elongated mandibles and still saw it a year later so fingers crossed for the CT.
Hopefully.
I'll continue to keep an eye out for it, but this is the longest I've gone without any sighting, even a distant sighting, and if I do, it'll be shared here.
Some of you may recall the coal tit with crossed mander bills easrlier this year.
Well, it looks like we may have another coal tit with the same condition. It could be the same one, but I doubt it for two reasons, the first being the limited lifespan of coal tits, the second, close inspection of the beak doesn't look as long as the original. It could be one for the young, which would suggest a genetic fault, or it could be a totally unconnected brood.
But, the crossover is the same format, right over left....