Blue Tits and Black Redstarts
The Trauma of Leaving the Nest
This year has been a good year for Great Tits and Blue Tits nesting in Woodcock Wood. We’ve had two pairs of each rearing broods in nest boxes.
We were at the wood on the 19th May, clearing debris from the fallen oak, and as luck would have it, watched 7 young Blue Tits leave the nest in quick succession.
It has been perfect weather for the early breeding birds in UK, and that day was beautifully warm and welcoming.
The young birds were all clearly ready. We watched as an adult came to the entrance of the box with food to tempt them up, and then heads started to appear. There was occasional competition for the launch point, and then one by one they struggled out of the hole. Each quickly flew a few metres into the now dense foliage of the chestnut coppice, and disappeared from view. The whole process took no more than 15 minutes.
What an extraordinary experience it must be for them – being reared for two weeks in the crowded semi darkness of the little box, and then getting their first view of a bright and totally new world.
By contrast, we’ve watched several broods of Black Redstarts nesting in the front door porch of our house in Portugal. At the time of their departure the bold ones would be hopping out of the nest, stretching their wings and hopping back in again. No such luxury for the Blue Tits – a few seconds of looking around and they are off – with no preliminaries or tentative exploration. But at least it’s not departure and abandonment – the young Blue Tits will be fed by the parents for several days after they have left the nest.
The Black Redstart
Like the Blue Tit, the Black Redstart has wide distribution across Europe and Asia. It is not common in the UK. Young ones on passage can be seen in autumn throughout the country, but the UK’s resident Black Redstarts are confined to the South East. It is a bird of rocks and ledges, but has become widely adapted to urban living, and is often found nesting in derelict buildings.
In Portugal it is common in towns and villages, as well as rocky mountainous areas, and is an iconic bird in our village of França. We often see the males with their black and white plumage and orange tails, and the drabber brown and orange females sitting on prominent posts in the garden hunting insects.
They have nested three or four times in our front porch. They quickly got used to our comings and goings. Usually the male is as diligent as the female in rearing the young, but on one occasion the female managed the whole process on her own. The male gave his attention to a second female nesting across the road.
This is not an uncommon practice among Black Redstarts. However what was unusual, was the male’s vicious attack on the young ones as they left the nest of the lone female. As each one fluttered and flew across the street to find a safe perch, the male dived in and drove it away. For about fifteen minutes it was panic and mayhem, and sadly several of the young only lasted a few minutes – the street cats were delighted by the process, and there was little we could do.
Aggressive behaviour on the part of the male is usually directed at rival males entering its territory. Males will recognise rival males from their plumage. The plumage of fledglings is very different to the plumage of an adult male – why the aggression?