Bearded Tits Do it Again

Unlike many other species our Bearded Tits at Leighton Moss seem to be reasonably up to date this year, despite the poor weather. We already have at least four fledged broods. We  got the colour ring  combinations of another pair today which have just started incubating. I was surprised to find it was a pair which had already fledged one brood of four. they had moved ca 185 m to another wigwam nest box. The young fledged on April 30th and the first egg of the second clutch was laid just four days after the young had fledged equaling our record from previous observations. Over the weekend we found a further four nests  and we  await details of their colour combinations, one can only assume that most of these are second broods. In past years pairs have had second clutches in the same box while others have moved up to ca 400 m. Bearded Tits are not territorial and have been known to nest just 10 m apart. However some interesting observations have come to light from the RSPB web cam which has been on two nests recently. Bearded Tit enthusiast Alan Gallagher has been logging sightings. At the nest which was still incubating on 4 May at approximately 0520 hours the nesting male was perched in the reeds to the top right of the nest box. An intruding male  enters the frame from the reeds to the left of the nest box. As the intruding bird makes its way through the reeds towards the opening of the nest box the sitting female exits the nest box and chases the intruding bird away from the nest box. Simultaneously the nesting male descends from his perch and enters the nest box. About 1-2 minutes later the nesting female returns and enters the nest box. She then leaves the nest box about 30 seconds later.

Two days later at 0705 hours on  6 May an intruding female bearded tit arrives in close to the nest box. As this bird is making its way past the opening of the nest box, the sitting female emerges, attacking the intruder and chasing it off through the reeds. The sitting female resumes her incubation duties a couple of minutes later.

These observations fit in well with others in past years, that  nesting birds only chase intruders away from the immediate vicinity of the nest. On one occasion 4 males were round a box and the female ignored them until any  came close to the nest box entrance.

Allan also collected some data on the number of feeding visits when the young were close to fledging .In seven hours of watching on April 17th the adults   averaged 29 visits per hour. in four hours next day they averaged 37 visits per hour. On both days the first feeding visit was at 05.50.

John