Hi everyone. We have had bluetits building the nest for over a month. And one of them sleeping in the box every night too. But for the past 2 days no sign of her. What I assume is the male who haslways hovers outside whilst she’s built the nest has appeared near by but not gone to the box and not stayed around very long. Does this mean the nest has been abandoned or is this something that n happen with the nest building stopping. ? The nest does look quite full and finished as we have a camera in there. Gutted. is there a chance she will return after being missing for 2 nights. ?
The first thought is that she may have been predated but BT's can be very picky and may well have decided to nest elsewhere!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Sorry to jump in, but we have a similar scenario, and any responses may help us both. Our situation is identical to yours, except it has been four days since either entered the box, the only activity in those four days was the male clinging to the outside looking in the hole for maybe 3 seconds.
We have reviewed the footage, and the last sighting of the female in the box shows her pecking at the hole from the inside as if she was trying to enlarge the hole, looking further back it does appear that she was a tight fit in the hole.
So the theory forming, is that she has become too big to fit through the hole, and has abandoned the box ?? The hole (Metal ring on outside), is exactly 29mm (1mm bigger than recommended for GT by RSPB), as a note the bird has a feint black stripe down it's front, so not sure whether it is a Blue Tit or Great Tit, maybe a cross breed ?
Any views, theories appreciated.
Hi. Yes the female was fitting through comfortably. And think the hole is big enough as it’s our 7 th year of having the birds nesting successfully too. The male has been back several times and haa peek in then flew away so I think maybe she was taken all the best to you. X
Thanks for the reply, just reviewed todays footage, and they are both back, we had a Hawk sitting on the fence a few days ago, maybe that frightened them off for a couple of days.
This, if successful will be our 6th year in succession, fledging 8-11 young, same box in two different locations.
Hope you get some good news.
We have two species in this thread. The one with faint stripe down front is a female great tit.
Awww that’s lovely to hear!!!! So pleased for you. Enjoy. X
Thanks for your comment and confirming the faint stripe indicates female great tit, our male has no such stripe, so presumably he is a Blue Tit ?
If so, they are cross breeding, as suspected.
There is contradictory information on hole size for Great Tits, some say 28mm, some say 32mm, hard to know which to believe, she has been in and out of the box this afternoon, and is clearly struggling with our 29mm hole. Obviously nothing we can do about it this year.
It sounds worth posting a clip from the footage.
Another 2 days with no visits to the box, hopefully it is just a gap when they don't between completing the nest and laying eggs ??
New to this camera stuff, will try to find it and extract and upload.