On the Wildside: Titmice around the bird bath!

David and Anne Whiteley of Sheffield emailed to say ‘We follow your articles in TITO magazine and the newspapers and thought we would ask about gatherings of blue tits in our Sheffield garden on at least two occasions during September.

We have a bird bath in the centre of a lawn surrounded by bushes and around four blue tits sit in the bath ‘chatting’, whilst another 10 or 15 swoop to and fro across the open space, as if looking for interlopers. All of the surrounding bushes are alive with additional titmice, and the spectacle lasts for about 10 minutes. They then disperse and all is quiet again’. David and Anne then continued, ‘We have not seen this in previous years and wonder if you have had reports of this behaviour from other areas and know why it happens.’

placeholder image — Blue tit by Ian Rotherham

This is a question I get asked each autumn as the breeding behaviour of small birds like blue tits morphs from summertime into autumn and winter. I have indeed had similar occurrences here in my garden at Norton. Essentially, these are ‘post-breeding’ flocks which group together with adults and this year’s youngsters. They will roam the local area for the next few months often with great tits, coal tits, and maybe long-tailed tits. This means that when they arrive in the garden it is suddenly teeming, and then they are gone, until next time. A few of the more local birds will remain and visit regularly. Then, in spring, the birds choose their nesting sites and become territorial again. The behaviour around the bird bath is not territorial but just a sort of bird flock exuberance!

During very cold weather the birds head for good feeding sites like bird gardens and the need is to get maximum energy in for minimum energy expended! So, by midwinter it is likely that your wildlife garden will have lots of birds in terms of both numbers and species variety. It is important to keep feeding throughout the summer, albeit with smaller quantities, so the birds know where to come.

Professor Ian D. Rotherham, researcher, writer & broadcaster on wildlife & environmental issues, is contactable on [email protected]; follow Ian’s blog (https://ianswalkonthewildside.wordpress.com/) and Twitter @IanThewildside