Species of the month: May
Species: Blue Tit
Weighing little more than a one pound coin,
the blue tit is one of our smallest and most colourful birds, with
bright blue and yellow plumage.
During May, the birds will be busy rearing a
family and with up to ten young per nest, there is plenty of work
to do!
Our gardens provide good feeding areas for
blue tits, with caterpillars in the spring and many of us providing
peanuts and other foods throughout the year.
Like most tit species, blue tits are hole
nesters and this is why the provision of nest boxes has been a real
lifeline for this species, particularly when there are not enough
natural tree holes in many of our modern, tidy gardens.
The female will lay and incubate eggs over a
two week period and will be fed by the male during this time.
After all the eggs hatch she will still look after the young and be
fed by her partner for another five days before they both share the
demanding task of feeding the young.
This can be fascinating to watch; for the next
two weeks, every minute of daylight is utilised as the adult birds
fly into the nest with beaks full of caterpillars, before
flying back out often carrying droppings that would
otherwise soil the nest
Blue tits can live for several years, but the
mortality rate of the newly emerged birds is high; natural
predators, such as sparrowhawks rely on this supply of food, while
others often fall prey to the domestic cat.
However, the big broods of young ensure the
blue tit is a survivor and in fact, thanks to our gardens, it is a
real success story with the population rising by around 35% in the
last 30 years.
How you can help
If you don’t already have a nest box for blue
tits in your garden, why not make or buy one. Ideally this
needs to go up early in the spring, but there is no harm putting
one up in May, to become weathered and familiar to the birds, even
if it’s not occupied until next year. Information on building
nest boxes is available from the
Kent Biodiversity Partnership (PDF 2MB).
When young blue tits emerge from the nest,
they can sometimes look lost and helpless; they are a paler lemon
colour than the adults and may still have patches of fluffy baby
down on their heads. The main advice here is to leave them
alone; the parents will still be in the area and looking after
theses fledglings as they start to forage for food and get to know
their surroundings.
What else to look out for in April
The skylark is declining in our countryside,
but farmland and grassland in Kent is still a stronghold for this
species. You may see the bird rising from the ground, singing
as it goes, until it becomes a dot in the sky. Skylarks can
be found throughout the year, but as with most species, it is only
during the spring, when attracting a mate a defending a territory,
that the song can be heard.