I took a cup of tea into my conservatory today to watch the birds, after spending a couple of hours sweeping what seem to be an endless amounts of leaves. The feeders at this end of the garden were busy, with coal tits being almost as common as the great tits. Coal tits are slightly smaller than the blue tits, with a distinctive white stripe on the back of the neck. They are numerous in and around my patch and they love the black sunflower seeds. Never staying around for long, it is very much ‘grab ‘n’ go with them as they dip in, flick through the seeds and then thy are off. They are known to stash seeds, which might explain why I get random sunflowers growing in strange places!
The sun was shining late afternoon and with these active little birds flitting in and out, I grabbed a few shots…..
They are fussy little birds, flinging the seeds everywhere as they seem to search for one in particular… strange as they are all black sunflowers in this feeder! I like this photo as I caught a seed in mid-air!
I am hoping to attract this species to a camera nest box this year. They like a nest box to be mounted quite low down, with a small (25mm) hole or some research suggests they like a slit. They make a nest similar to a blue tit and start egg laying between late March and late June, sometimes having two broods. It would be great to get one of these birds nesting in my patch… there are so many of them, they must be nesting near here!