Nest building started...and aborted?

About two weeks ago the blue tits quite suddenly stopped visiting my birdbox and I soon found out why: they were apparently building a nest in the neighbour’s garden! I saw the female collecting nest material and bringing it to the other garden, so I had already given up hope for this year.

However, this morning suddenly nest building started in my box! The female was bringing in materials and I saw the male being excited and jumping around the birdbox too. 

Nest building has started, 3 May 2013 8:56am

Contrary to last year when the nest was being build quickly and without hesitation, this time it feels like the bird is still in the process of evaluating the box. When she brings in material she spends a lot of time looking around (not in the video). 

But then something remarkable happened. While the nest builder (female) was inside the box, another blue tit appeared in the opening of the box but (at first) did not enter. To me it looked like another female because she was together with another bird that behaved like a male. Actually, I think this is the same male that was with the nest building female.

The bird in the box started to display what I think is a threatening posture towards the bird that is hanging in the opening. I have captured this in the video below. Eventually the bird enters and the nest builder flies out. Since then the nest building has stopped and I have not seen this bird back in the box.

Is this a threatening posture against the bird that is hanging in the opening? 3 May 2013 9:28am

I’m quite puzzled by this situation because there appeared to be two females and one male. The male was not defending its territory against the nest builder. On the contrary it seemed! But then this female gets booted out of the box by another female that has no interest in the box herself? It is hard to tell the individual birds apart, but I think that the bird that chased the nestbuilder off was the female that is nesting in my neighbour’s garden.

The nest building female has not been back since, but the male now keeps checking the box very regularly during the day, including pecking around the opening as if he is evaluating it as a nest site. This is a big difference from the past few weeks because the birds seemed to have lost all interest in my birdbox.

Regular visits

The box is visited by the same pair of blue tits a few times every day. The pattern is usually the same: the male enters and calls the female. Sometime later the female enters and the male flies out at the same time. 

Male calling female into the box, 25 March 2013 9:00am

Outside the box, I have seen the blue tit chasing off a (much bigger) great tit when it was in a bush near the birdbox. The great tit didn’t confront the angry blue tit and just flew off. Although the great tit would likely win any fight, apparently it doesn’t think it was worth it…

Note1:  after I have made the box opening narrower, great tits cannot enter anymore. I have seen them pecking at the opening trying to enlarge it but of course without success (metal).

Note2: I’m now again running the camera regularly with a higher framerate and with sound to capture the calls. The downside of this is that I cannot use motion detection so it can only be done when I’m present.

Evaluating the bird box

Today I captured the video below. The male blue tit calls the female into the box (the video has no sound but you can see his his bill moving). The female then enters and inspects the box. You can see her flapping her wings, indicating she is looking for a place to build a nest. Later on she will use these same moves to spread out the nest materials. Although there is no material in the box yet (and I’m not expecting it for another month), this nest building reflex is already there!

Female evaluating the bird box, 15 March 2013, 8:23am

Catching an Insect

Since I always see the same male blue tit around the birdbox (sometimes together with a female), I’m pretty confident that they will attempt to nest here in the spring. To improve the safety for them I have now made the opening of the box more narrow (25mm instead of 28mm). This means that great tits cannot enter anymore. This improves the safety for the blue tits, but obviously I now completely rely on them for a nest.

I recently captured this footage of the male catching an insect inside the box.

This is the only male blue tit that I see in and around the box, so I think he owns it now :). In this short video you can see him catch an insect (5 March 2013, 12:50pm)

On the same day I captured this footage of what I think is the female. There appears to be a first hint of the flapping wings thing that the females do when they evaluate nest sites in the spring.

First hint of wing-flapping while evaluating nest site? (5 March 2013, 9:58am)

Male and Female together

This is the first time this season that I have seen the male and female together in the birdbox. And it is the first time anyway that I have seen the female spending several minutes inside.

30 January, 9;23am. Female investigates the birdbox

P.s. camera is not properly positioned – I will correct this shortly. 

Female blue tit peeking inside

Lots of activity around the birdbox today. The male bird is flying in and out all the time. Later this afternoon he was together with a female. While she didn’t yet follow him into the birdbox, she did investigate it from the outside and peeked inside a few times.  I hope she likes what she sees…

Female peeking inside while the male is already inside the box

Is this going to be the new tenant?

Perhaps triggered by an 8 degrees rise in temperature and the fact that the recent snow has disappeared, some birds are now behaving as if the spring has already arrived.

Today I saw a male blue tit chasing a female near the birdbox. He was showing all the typical spring behaviour like making himself look big, fanning his tail and putting his crest up. He showed a lot of interest in the birdbox, going in and out, jumping around in the tree, landing on the roof, flying around it etc. It appears he was really investigating it as a potential nest site and not just looking for food.

This male blue tit appears to be seriously interested in the birdbox. 

Fortunately this bird is easy to recognise by the black stripe on his chest that is much broader than usual, so I will recognise it when it keeps coming back.

Nuthatch checks the birdbox

The New Year has started and I’ve started to monitor the birdbox again. Birds are occasionally peeking inside the box but unlike last year I have no evidence of birds roosting in the box at night.

Last week I recorded for the first time a nuthatch peeking inside the box. In the video below you can see him checking the box twice and both times only a second later a blue tit followed him.

Nuthatch and blue tit checking the box, 9 January 2013, 10:02am

Maintenance on the bird box

Last September I have cleaned out the bird box and treated the outside with teak oil. The nest with eggs came out in one piece.

The nest

Close-up of the eggs, still in exactly the same position as they were left behind.