blue tits feeding habits

[craigdaniel]

First time ive had bluetits nesting in my box. The nest built weeks ago.
The male is now feeding the female she either calls him into the box or she flies out for the food. What is going on in the box has egg laying started please help thankyou

[aeshna5]

I would expect the egg laying has begun, if not completed + she is now incubating the eggs + the male is now feeding her.

[astarsdad]

Hi,
I would imagine all the eggs are laid and the female will sit on the eggs so that they all hatch at the same time.
Terry

[mrbright]

hi , yes all seems to be going to plan , however in my case , the female is perfectly silent, the male calls her from just outside the box with food , sometimes he goes in with it, and other times she will fly off with him to feed. i bet like me you can not wait for the incubation to finish. not long now.

[Elizabeth B]

Originally Posted by craigdaniel

First time ive had bluetits nesting in my box. The nest built weeks ago.
The male is now feeding the female she either calls him into the box or she flies out for the food. What is going on in the box has egg laying started please help thankyou

Does she stay in the box most of the time now - if so, she's probably incubating.

You can read about what's happening in two of boxes on our website, the female bluetits are now incubating. The Overview page gives the dates of significant events, so this might help you to guess what's going on in your boxes.

[craigdaniel]

yes Elizabeth she does. The female only comes out when the male offers food from the tree opposite by calling her, she then returns staight away

[RKB]

When laying, the female roosts in the box, lays an egg first thing in the morning, and then doesn't return again til the evening (although they sometimes carry on building up the nest). Once all eggs are laid (one per day), incubation starts. The female will come off the nest 2-3 tims per hour at first, for about 5-10 mins, and feed with the male. She solicits extra food from him by calling and fluttering her wings, like a juvenile as they move around nearby.

During the second week of incubation she needs to spend more time incubating, so the male brings more food to the box to make up for the feeding time that the female loses. Increasingly, he will enter the box to feed her, although she will still come off to feed and bathe. Once the young hatch, they still need brooding so the pattern is similar to incubation for the first 4 days or so, but gradually the female spends more time gathering food as the young grow. By late in the second week after hatching, she will not even roost in the box.

After about 3 weeks the young will fledge. Often this happens early in the morning and all leave within about an hour. But sometimes this can string out over 2-3 days. They do not return to the box once they have fledged, not even to roost. Once they have all left, they will move away and the young will be fed for another 2 weeks before they all split up and disperse.

Blue Tits only have one brood per year, with most nesting at the same time in April-May.