Roosting Great Tit

[The Black Rabbit]

Saw this little chap disappear into the steel upright strut of the bike covers at work (into a hole about 8 foot off the ground) yesterday, and thought WABers might be interested.
The wee chap had carefully chosen to ignore all the bird boxes that our work-place had put up for it!

So I took a five minute break this evening and took a photo...



NB. Don't worry - the shot was taken from a fair old distance away, on full (12x) zoom, standing in the courtyard on an upturned bin - the Great Tit didn't even know I was anywhere near!

Doug

[Ollie]

What an unusual roosting spot but he/she looks very snug in there
Roger

[naturelover]

how sweet and what a funny place to sleep,senseble bird if it rains he/she wont get wet.

[aeshna5]

A very resourceful Great Tit you have there Doug- it looks incredibly snug!

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

Soo snug he almost looks stuck! Amazing the kind of unexpected places you find wildlife isn't it!

Cheers Jacob

[The Black Rabbit]

Thanks for your replies people.

You know what....

I happen to think that places like these are not that unusual as roosting spots for small birds like Tits.
The amount of times I've seen Blue Tits fly inside old lamposts at dusk for example, and Great Tits fly into little holes like this (in seemingly, cold, stark, metal tubes) would suggest (to me at least) it is in fact quite usual behaviour.
We just don't look, or don't think of looking. It took about two seconds in very low light for the Great Tit in my photo to fly in and roost. I was just lucky I was in the right place to see it at the right time, and was keeping my eyes open...

I happen to know that a pair of Great Tits nested in an old post, in the office courtyard last spring, behind the bike covers (about 20 feet from this roost), once again choosing to ignore the bird boxes that people in the building had carefully put up for them!

Find a pair of Great or Blue Tits around dusk if you can, especially in built up areas, stay still, or half out of sight, and I think you might be surprised at where they go to spend the night - very often in separate roosts in seemingly strange places (but not when you think about it - they are almost predator proof in many cases), quite close to each other in many cases.

The Great Tit in the photo does look snug eh?
Its about 6" inside the steel strut, and the hole faces west. Unless there's a howling westerly wind and rain, it should remain dry in there!

Cheers
Doug

[mrs fish]

Little dear, thanks for posting that