We have a blue tit building its nest at the moment and we observed some mysterious behaviour, which I don't know if it is courtship or defence. I hope someone may shed some light on this.
Yesterday evening (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZnXn-BbaIo), the nesting blue tit entered the box. A while later another one came with its wings lower and seemed to be "begging" outside the box. Inside the box (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKVmYTpa5OI), the nesting one "bit into the air" even if it didn't see the other one later. It didn't look aggressive as it didn't spread its tail or made any noise. I am not sure if the one side was the male as it looks different from the male that used to come.
A while later (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMJz3tjQgY8), the blue tit outside was still lowering its wings and seemed to be begging outside the nest box. You can see the nesting one's behaviour (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAgXx-VgWKw).
This evening, we saw the nesting blue tit "attacking" the one outside (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuhbhWbahp0). Is this really an attack?
I don't know much about blue tit behaviour, so I: can't offer any suggestions. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be able to give an answer.
I noticed this is duplicated in the thread: "mysterious blue tit behaviour" link: https://community.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/f/ask-an-expert/279932/mysterious-blue-tit-behaviour/1387039#1387039
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler