Saturday, 1 April 2017

Bedfordshire Birds - Long Tailed Tits Nest Building

One week later after posting photos of a pair of Long-tailed Tits sitting in the top of a bramble thicket, I returned to the area to see what was about.
 
Straight away and over about 10 minutes I saw more Long-tailed Tits coming to and through, diving into the thicket, and emerging quickly flying off into the surrounding trees.  I realised that this was a family building a nest deep in the thicket, something I had never seen before.  The Long-tailed Tit is unusual, in that the family from previous years stay together and work as a group to build the nest and feed the large number of young.
 
I understand that the dome shaped nest is built of moss, hair, lichens and spiders webs, lined with feathers.  A selection of possible examples are seen below.
 
Some form of a grass stem perhaps?

Just left the nest and off to forage.
 
The male with a bunch of feathers....
 
Unfortunately I never managed a photo of this male showings its beautiful pink colouration. 
 
Possibly feathers and a spider's web?
 
More spider's web?
I soon left the area, as I had the photos I wanted, and to allow the family to continue with their nest building.

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