Wednesday 12 August 2015

Tit adoption service

In my previous post I mentioned an usual encounter of a woodpecker being fed by a different bird species. The birds I filmed feeding the Woodpecker was a pair of Great tits and they came back again and again. I have never seen this or heard of this before with these species, I have a theory which I will try and explain below using some photographs of the tree that the birds were nesting in.
Here's a short video I filmed on my DSLR of the Great tit feeding the young GSW.
 
My theory's are explained using the photo below:
There were 2 holes on this tree, the top hole looks like a GSW marked with a red circle and below is the Great tits hole in blue. I am thinking that either the Woodpecker got confused and laid it's eggs in the wrong nest. Another theory is the GSW nest cavity collapsed and the egg fell down into the Great tits nest. The GSW nest was not active at all but you can tell the top is a woodpeckers due to the damage around the hole and the Great tits entrance is smaller and more like the size on Tit box.
The next day we visited the tree again so I am guessing the chick had fledged thanks to it's adopted parents the Great tits.

Thanks for reading my blog
Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 
Mike

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