Visit our Pet & Wildlife TRADE COUNTER/SHOWROOM in Longton, Stoke on Trent
Tel:01782 229129
Visit our Pet & Wildlife TRADE COUNTER/SHOWROOM in Longton, Stoke on Trent
Tel:01782 229129
How to Attract Blue Tits To Your Garden
How to Attract Blue Tits To Your Garden
Blue Tits
Are a colourful mix of blue, yellow, white and green makes the blue tit one of our most attractive and most recognisable garden visitors. A very visible feature is the black line that goes across their eyes. In winter, family flocks join up with other tits as they search for food. Sometimes in your garden you can see four or five blue tits at a feeder at any one time.
When and where do Blue Tits Nest?
Most wildlife bird breeding starts from mid-April. They nest in holes or cavities, usually in a tree or a nest box. Blue Tits can take up to 46 days to build their nests as both the male and female make many many trips backwards and forwards to their nest carrying any foliage they might find. The best nest for them is a nest made up of dried grass, leaves, moss or hair.
The female builds the nest and can lay between seven to twelve eggs. Here eggs are smooth and glossy white, with brown speckles. The female alone will incubate the eggs by laying on them between twelve and sixteen days. When the chicks are hatched both parents bring food and tend to the young who remain in the nest for a further fifteen to twenty-three days.
How might I attract Blue Tits to my garden?
If you want to attract Blue Tits to your garden, make or buy a nest box with a hole around 32mm wide. Then position it 2.5 metres up a tree or you can fix it to a tall fence or wall. Just make sure it's out of the reach of any predators including cats. The space in front of the entrance needs to be clear and placed in a shady area, facing north-east. Always avoid strong sunlight. A slanted nest box is the best design for Blue Tits
What do Blue Tits eat?
Blue tits mainly eat insects, but they also love nuts, seeds and fruit. When it's nesting season the work they do is tiring and uses up a lot of energy and so they will always be so grateful for fat balls, berry pellets or mealworms as a little treat.
Where to feed Blue Tits?
Feeder – Ideally above 1.5m in height you can use a feeding station, bird table or window feeder. Blue Tits don't often feed from the floor. A Squirrel proof feeder is best as these feeders keep away the bigger birds and allows the little ones to feed.
How long do Blue Tits live?
Sadly around two thirds of young blue tits don’t make it through the first year of their life for lots of reasons, those that do typically live for three years, but the maximum age recorded from is 10 years, 3 months and 10 days.
Rest of the year
Blue Tits tend to be sedentary birds, staying close to where they hatched as chicks, but some do migrate, which means some of the Blue Tits you see in your garden over winter might have hatched or bred elsewhere in northern Europe. Winter is a tough time for many species and Blue Tits are no exception. Blue Tits really rely on us to feed them and it's a good idea to provide them a cozy nest boxes in winter for shelter, especially during the night.
Almost two thirds of young Blue Tits will not survive their first year of life, but those that do usually start to breed the spring after they hatched.
