tit feeding heights

[parsleythelion]

am i right in thinking blue tits and great tits find insects at different heights, the blue tit higher in a tree? i have some blue's nesting in my garden and they are ignoring a mealworm feeder i placed about 1.5m above ground but a great tit regularly eats from it.

also, i see the blue's flying into the higher branches of neighbouring trees but then dart onto the ground thus avoiding any neat pigeonholing.

i've placed a few mealworm feeders around the place, none too near the nest (for very long, i did place one quite near for a while today but they, and everything else ignored it). there's been varying degrees of success in my target species eating from these feeders. i've designed several specifically for my blue tits with a 25mm hole into the mealworm chamber.

i've bought some maggots today, i know there are issues with them, but if they're fresh i trust they're OK. it's the danger of botulism i'm concerned about.

any further tips on feeding?

[Hedge Witch]

Interesting about the heights. I've never experimented, but I'd love to know if this is true.

About the maggots, I really don't think this is a good food for them, there was a post in a thread recently that mentioned this

[ron1863]

I have feeders at several heights and the Tits use them all but they are fussy as to what they eat.

[parsleythelion]

there are chicken people that hang road kill in their chicken runs for the poultry to feast on the maggots when they fall. what's good for the chicken can't be too bad for the wild bird.

apols for this frankly disgusting message.

[RoyW]

All tit species will tend to find and use bird feeders whatever height they are positioned at. Perhaps there are plenty of caterpillars available and the Blue Tits just prefer these to meal worms?

As for feeding heights, if you watch Blue and Great Tits in a woodland (or other area well away from feeders) you will find that although both species do feed at all heights, Great Tits are more regularly seen feeding lower down than Blue Tits (Great Tits are often seen feeding on he forest floor, especially during the autumn - perhaps after fallen seeds?).

Roy.

[snapewoodclayts]

I concur with this, the Great Tits in my garden from the nearby woodland are more inclined to come down to ground level looking for grubs, seeds etc, whereas the blue tits will seem to forage higher up on branches and feeding stations.

My Great Tits now will only take sunflower hearts from the ground, whereas before the breeding season they would readily take them from the hanging feeder. I suspect they are trying to get the best of all worlds by feeding low down - one of mine flew off with a huge monkey nut (intended for my squirrels) today - never seen that before ! Hope it doesn't try cramming that down a nestling's gape