Great Tits

Here in the UK we have several different kinds of Tit, the ones here are Great Tits (Sorry if this is not what you expected, but thanks for the view! lol). We have been lucky, so far, that in the 6 years since I put up our nest box we have had Tits nesting every year except this year. The largest number of fledglings we have had is 9, which were a family of Blue Tits.

Adult Great Tit

 

The way to tell Male and Female apart is by the black stripe down the chest, the male has a much broader stripe than the Female.

    Male

Female

 

These two look a bit ragged due to the fact that they were feeding 7 fledglings, it was amazing to see how many times they visited the nest with food, almost non-stop from dawn to dusk.

         

                                                                          Feed Me!

 The Female usually lays between 5 and 11 eggs and they hatch in approximately 16 days and fledge in 26

                                                           Fledgling leaving the nest

 They usually head for a small pine tree in our garden as that gives them the most cover,

 

Once they are ready they will usually head for some thick bushes near our garden, however even this can be fraught with danger. I thought all our little ones had made it safely to the large hedge, but I kept hearing a desperate cheeping noise from the area of the car park. I noticed that one of the adults was hopping around near the drain cover in the corner. On investigation I found that one of the little ones had fallen down the drain. I managed to lift the cover and rescue it, and happily it joined it's parents and siblings safely.

                                                               The Rescued Baby

Well that's all for this time, Next time I will be looking at Blue Tits and Long Tailed Tits.