Great Tits breed in Koenigsbronn

The Great Tit (german: Kohlmeise, sci.: Parus major). For many years there is a nest box in my garden, where great tits regularly stay over night and breed. A little b&w camera and a microphone is in the inside, so you can watch everything on TV or even over the internet.

Live picture from inside the nest box (webcam)
Nest box technology

[Great Tit Story 1996]
[Further events]
[My other nice bird pictures]
[Articles]
[Interesting links on the Great Tit and nest boxes]

Great Tit Story 1996

Winter 1995/1996 was not yet running out when a pair of Great Tits found their place in my nest box, which they examined from the inside to the outside. I often recorded the events in the nest box with a VCR. Subsequent I will tell the whole story about the two Great Tits, from the "housing inspection" to the fly out of the young birds.

04/02	The two Great Tits at their first inspection of the nest box. The female has a white back of the head, while the male there is completely black. - pick-pick, hack-hack!
04/06	Housewarming! They fly for material and the nest develops. Moss and blades of grass for the base, soft hairs for upholstering.
04/08	The material is pushed to the wall of the nest box by the power of their whole body and so the nest is well compressed.
04/11	The bird seems not to trust my electronics at all, sceptical it looks up as if it notices something extraordinary...
04/13	When the Great Tit goes sleeping, she sticks her head under the wings. The whole night she is resetless and doesn't sleep for a long period.
04/17	As the Great Tit leaves the nest for a short time, a bumble-bee loses her way into the nest box. Short after the arrival of the Great Tit in the nest, she recognizes the "enemy" and started the fight. One or two times she picks after the bumble-bee, goes shortly defensive and then picks her out of the nest box. Have a visit at Cornel van Bebber and you will learn, that this bumble-bee was a Queen. What a pity, this one won't ever found a new swarm...
04/23	After two days of inner restlessness the Great Tit laid her 1st egg. At 0500 the time has come. For some minutes she rises her body then sinks down and the egg lies under her.
04/24	The 2nd egg, exact one day later in the morning at 0530. Again some minutes pass before the egg becomes visible.
04/25	The 3rd egg, again one day later in the morning at 0600. Funny, how the Great Tit is rising her tail feathers while she lays the egg!
04/26	The 4th egg in the morning at 0630, the 5th egg in the morning of the 04/27 at 0700, the 6th egg in the morning of the 04/28 at 0800. The eggs are always rolled and turned, the Great Tit stands nearly head foremost in the nest!
04/27	Indefatigable the male brings food for the female. Only some minutes a day the female leaves the nest.
04/29	The 7th egg, in the morning at 0900. From now on the Great Tit breeds for 14 days and the hard working male feeds his wife.
05/12	The youngs are hatched, get fed and warmed. While feeding, the fledglings rise their bills as high as they can. It looks like "squeezing" the insects above their bills when the parents are feeding. One could listen to a very faint, high hiss from the youngs.
05/15	3 days after being hatched, feathers begin to darken. The female takes the faecal sacs of the young birds, for that they rise up their back part. In the first days the Great Tit even eats it up.
05/16	4 days, real little feathers at the wings are already visible. The Great Tit is not prim concerning the neatness in the nest. Like the eggs, also the fledglings are "turned"!
05/17	5 days, the feathers darken more and more. Both parents now fly for food. Slowly but surely the nest gets undermined.
05/19	7 days, some fledglings opened their eyes, the wing grow bigger. After 8 days the feathers get their colored shade, after 9 days the biggest chicks are completely covered with feathers.
05/22	10 days, the wings and the tail feathers are ready developed. The sound in the nest box increases.
05/23	After 11 days one can see the white back heads, the youngs really grow up. The parents fly indefatigable from the early morning till late in the evening and feed insects.
05/25	13 days, two of the chicks are quite huge. Five of the seven youngs are remaining. The other two could not stand the fight for food. It's mean, always the biggest chick gets most of the food.
05/26	14 days, the wing get unfolded for testing. The chicks could eat more than the parents bring up and they begin to clean themselves. On day 16 there's a vehement fluttering! At night the "big" ones sleep beside their mother, the three little ones are covered by her.
05/30	18 days, the two big birds fly out and the others are very impatient. This last night the three little birds must spend alone, not before morning the Great Tit comes back home.
05/31	19 days, after a meal from their mama the rest of the young birds leave one after the other the nest.

Further events

During winter 1996/97, striktly speaking from the 12th of november until the 9th of february, every night a Great Tit was guest in the nest box. In twilight, approximately 1630 to 1700 in november, she's "coming home". At first she cleans all feathers before she sticks her head under one wing and sleeps till 0700 in the morning. Then she looks like a feather ball! From awakening to starting out of the nest box, before the sun ist rising, only 15 seconds will pass! The night time of the Great Tit depends on the brightness in twilight. If the sun is shining, she comes home later than on a cloudy day. In the beginning of february it gets warmer outside and the insects awake in the nest. The Great Tit itches and scratches herself half night long and in future she prefers to sleep outside again...

nest with 8 eggs Also in Spring 1997 a pair of Great Tits used the nest box again. This time the Great Tit laid 8 eggs, 7 little birds hatched, unfortunately only 3 of them kept alive. In the picture you can see the 8 eggs, the upper strange long egg remained as it was - no chick came out of it.

Great Tit under a foxglove During winter 1997/98 not a single Great Tit visited the nest box. And in spring 1998 no young bird left the nest: indeed the Great Tits built a nice nest, the female laid 8 eggs and began to breed. Unfortunately very irregular because she was seduced by the sounds of the male bird to leave the nest. 3 young birds were hatched, but they died after some days. Neither heat nor the want of nourishment could have been a reason for.

But from another nest box some young birds left the nest. One of them was hunted by a jay, but thanks to both parents the little bird survived its first longer flight. After this exhausting travel the young Great Tit sits in the garden. Because it is raining, it stands under the big leaf of a foxglove an waits there in the dry to be fed!

sleeping Great Tit Great Tit before sleep In summer the nest has been taken out and the nest box is empty. The 21st of november 1998, temperature of -8°C, the box is examined by a Great Tit and since then every evening in twilight the bird comes to the nest box to sleep in at night. Sometimes it sits for a while on a limb in front of watching the surrounding.
The right hand picture shows the sleeping Great Tit moving while it sleeps!
In the New Year's Night the Great Tit was totally scared. With the sound of the first rockets it woke up, moved suddenly and after ten minutes it jumped around in the nest box. I'd like to know what it thought about there happening. Fortunately it didn't leave the box and comes still "home" for sleeping.

		So what! 06th of march 1999, the Great Tit comes home sharp at the beginning of the night, maybe a little bit early. And instead of sleeping, it begins to clean up the nest box. Old feathers and excrements are thrown in the corner or carried outside - it never did so before. But then it happens: the "right" Great Tit also comes into the nest box an a wild fight begins. Some minutes they pick each other with their sharp bills, they roll up and down, they beat with their wings and cry as loud as they can - no more lovely beeps. The mic amplifier almost clipped. Feathers tumble around like in a pillow-battle and the "intruder" gives up and speeds out through the little hole. I thought, none of the Great Tits could have survived this. Only a feather carpet reminds of this wild battle.
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The Great Tit spent some more nights in the nest box, then it was so warm she could sleep outside somewhere in a garden tree. Also in spring 1999 four little birds hatched and til autumn the nest box stayed empty.

On the 10th of november 1999 it was so cold again, that a Great Tit found her way into the nest box to stay over night - but this was definitly another Great Tit than before: it did a non-stop flight directly into the hole of the nest box, without an intermediate landing. Very good navigation. Until the 09th of march 2000 it slept every night in the box. The last nights it was so warm outside that vermin prevented her from sleeping. But soon it was cold again and the Great Tit was back again.

1st of April 2000: moss inside the nest box! Soon a new nest will be visible. Greetings from it to the rest of the World!
Seven eggs were in the nest and four little Great Tits left the box in the beginning of june. The four fledgelings stayed together for a long time, one could hear them always chirping around in the trees and the surrounding - as if they would talk to each other!

This summer I made a technical upgrade at the nest box, now I can check the Great Tit's movements with a twin light barrier. And a temperature sensor tells me whether the bird feels cold or hot.

Already the 2nd of November 2000 a Great Tit is roosting, the night temperature has fallen to +2°C. And again this is another bird than last year's: this one does two intermediate landings on the branches in front of the nest box. Maybe it is one of last year's Youngsters. And again the bird arrives at twilight time.
Since I installed the light barrier, every movement is logged. Interesting, that the Great Tit visits the nest box sometimes over the day for some minutes, this shows other birds its territory.
The 3rd of December I made a "bed of straw" for the bird. First it sceptically pecked the straw blades flinging them around, but quickly got used to it and fell satisfied asleep.

2001, January 9th: A moonstruck Great Tit?
Some nights ago after three or four hours of sleep the bird got restless and looked out of the hole to the moonlit landscape - expecting the dawn?
Great Tit near the Street Light

And this evening nothing could stop the bird: at 10 PM it left the nest box and wandered between the trees reaching a branch near the street light. It stared at the light as if this would be the bright day. Ten minutes later the bird vanished between the dark trees and wasn't seen at night since then. Inspite of that the nest box is guarded by the bird all over the day.
I think it will build its nest in my nest box.

2001, April 29th: After the Great Tits began to build a nest, I don't see them any more near the nest box. I think they build their nest somewhere else. In June I watched seven fledglings here in the garden looking every day for food!
(Images taken with the SONY Hi8 Video Camera TR-2200E, the moon with approx. 60x Digital Zoom and manual exposure, the Great Tit with 21x Optical Zoom)

2001, November 2nd: some Great Tits are interested in the nest box since the last days. Today the night temperature is fallen under zero degrees celcius and a bird stays in the nest box over night. Again it is another one than last year: it comes home, looks if everything is OK inside and vanishes again for some minutes. After that the evening-ritual begins - cleaning the feathers, pumping up, sticking the little head under the wings and falling asleep... until dawn lures the Great Tit outside!
On the right part of the picture you can see a tail feather, the last days must have been a little quarrel about the nest box. The feather lies there as a trophy.

2002, March 31st: Today the Great Tits begin to built their nest and they will lay only 5 eggs during the next weeks but will raise all of them - there is plenty of food this spring!
I took the two pictures on the right side at night on May 21st, the Great Tit and the little ones spend their last night in the nestbox, and on May 22nd spreading fuel for the fly-out...
And also this year I could watch the Great Tit Family for a long period when they visited the garden looking for food, you can't escape their funny high noises!
2002, October 19th: In the evening temperature is nearly 0°C and like every year a Great Tit is coming into the nest box to rest 'til dawn. Days before it sometimes had a look into...

The 2007/03/10 a Great Tit begins to build a nest. Within some days it is ready and the bird stays overnight, it seems to be the overnight guest of last winter.
On 2007/04/04 the Great Tit layed the first egg, with an interval of two days (very unusual) it layed a total of 6 eggs. Incubated unsuccessful, lasting for weeks.
From 2007/05/09 it layed again 6 eggs and on 2007/05/24 the first little bird is hatched!
On 2007/06/14 the three (all hatched ones) little birds fly out at 7:45 AM! The third one first hat to be lured by mom, before it left its home.

2008/02/20: the overnight winter Great Tit brings in material. When the first moss parts are cramed in another Great Tit will take posession of the nest box and they have a short but intense fight.
The bird builds the nest at her leisure. On 2008/04/09 I had to watch for a good moment when the Great Tit makes a short trip to clean the very dirty plexiglass in front of the camera. Unfortunately the nest box is a bit skewed, that's why the plexiglass can't be removed any more. I cleaned it carefully and kept an eye on the nest...
Some days later, 2008/04/13, the first egg is visible. And till 2008/04/18 each day another one. Six eggs have to be hatched.

On 2008/05/02 four squabs are hatched, one day later two more. A short time after that I count only 5 little birds.
Since the evening of 2008/05/09 no more Great Tit mom is sleeping in the nest! And the feeding intervals are noticeable longer. This means perhaps that something happens to the mom and the male has full responsibility...

2008/05/12, the fledglings are all dead. Did also anything happen to the male? Or gave it up? Was it too cold at night (+10°C)?
I eliminated the nest and buried the little birds in the garden...

The first blades of grass are laying on 2009/03/08 in the nestbox, one week later the building of the nest begins, I think it is the overnight Great Tit from last winter, it still stays overnight here. On 2009/03/24 (maybe two days earlier) it appears to be another Great Tit, perhaps it is the partner staying overnight. One day later the birds don't show up. No more than 2009/04/04 the builds continue building. "On schedule" the 2009/04/18 the first egg lays in the nest, two days later the second one and more three days the third egg - a long time-lag. And that's all, since 2009/04/25 no more Great Tit showed up...

2009/05/14, a hungry Great Tit knocks at the window to beg for peanuts! More information an a short movie will be found here (only

text).

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2009/04/06 Today the Blue Tits begin to build their nest and already on 2009/04/17 the first egg lays in the nest and each day another one. Since 2009/04/26 the Blue Tit is busy breeding 9 eggs!
2009/05/29 five young Blue Tits fly out at 7:00AM!, the other four are sadly deceased. Too less fodder? Too cold at night?

2009/07/23, the little Great Tits from the neighbourhood and even a young Blue Tit are happy about an extra income in terms of minced peanuts (of course from the animal specialist shop).
The german journal natur+kosmos published in july 2009 an excellent interview with Prof. Peter Berthold:
July is a good month to begin: Peter Berthold explains why it is wise to feed birds - also in summer.
And in fact the birds fly around in the garden hard-working to search for food, despite - or because of - some extra peanuts!

Live view inside the nestbox (webcam)

On the left you see the live picture from the inside of the nest box!

Click the Live Cam Site for continuous monitoring!

Some other of my nice bird pictures

		I took these pictures in january 1999 and thanks to my friend Toni with his Canon Slide Scanner I could digitize them with 2700 dpi. If you click on the pictures you can watch them in high resolution, cropped and resampled to 1024x768, so that the resolution is still about 2000 dpi. The Blue Tits showed up more often than the Great Tits, a special pleasure was the little Robin. Technical data: Nikon F70, AF NIKKOR 28-80mm 1:3.5-5.6D (used with 80mm, w/o AF), partly used built-in highlight flash, Color Slide Film Fujichrome Sensia II 100.

Articles

Read the very good article Das fliegende Klassenzimmer" (only

text) from Michael Furmanek, HoerZu #28, 1999/07/09.
Photos: Wolfgang Sauer.

Interested in the Kookaburra? You will get informed by the article "Haenschen klein" (only text) from Michael Furmanek, HoerZu #50, 1999/12/10.
Photos: Wr. Taylor/Ardea + Ferrero-Labat/Auscape/Save-Bild.

Are Great Tit Fleas dangerous for man and how to clean up the nest box?

Prof. Mehlhorn, leader of the "Institut fuer Zoomorphologie, Zellbiologie und Parasitologie" of the Heinrich-Heine-University in Duesseldorf, is Germany's parasite and insect specialist. He told the following words: "These Bird Fleas are in the first place annoying and could lead to strong reactions on sensitiv people if they appear in big amount sucking blood.
Man is bitten mostly by Bird Fleas soon followed by Cat Fleas. That's why it is important to clean up the nest box as soon as possible after the birds leave the nest because at this time only a few grown-up fleas are inside - and only these are the suckers.
You should pack your nest box in a big sealed plastic bag and lay it for at least 2 or 3 weeks into the sun.
Another possibility is the treatment with maximum hot water that you pour through the hole into the nest box.
Thanks to Cornel van Bebber (only text) for this info. By the way, he is a bumble-bee expert!

Interesting links on the Great Tit and nest boxes

Voegel in unserer Stadt, an internet booklet. Years ago the Faculty of Veterinary Medecine in Berlin had informations hosted by Dr. Ralf-Uwe Hirschmann. Unfortunately these very nice and informativ pages about building nest boxes, how to watch birds with interesting facts and many pages aren't online any longer. Fortunately I saved them and you can have a look at them - again. Text and illustrations are by Nikolai Kraneis and you should take a bit of time to see Nikolai's other remarkable work.
Bird On!™ in Great Britain has a lot about the bird topic in English language. A visit on their pages is very worth while! Especially to my story with the bird pair in the nest box you can read interesting things about the Great Tit. Here you can click to see a very nice watercolor picture!		Even in Japan one can find our Great Tits - and even in animations, the so called japanese Animes. In the picture you can see Skuld, the younger sister of Belldandy, the main figure of the movie Ah! My Goddess!. A nice movie beginning with the trouble of Keiichi, who wants to order lunch and dials the wrong number. The Goddess Belldandy appears and grants him one wish... At Toni007 you also find interesting Anime-Infos with pictures und Sound Links!
Under the topic PROJEKT DATABROADCAST SCHULFERNSEHEN you can find educational material with many pictures of the Great Tit at the Bayerischen Rundfunk. Very good informations!
The "Naturschutzbund Deutschland" (NABU) has a nice text collection about birds' protection.
Reinhart Brandau has been kissed by the Great Tit - absolutly worth reading, as a Great Tit wakes him up in the morning! Furthermore you will find a dictionary Great-Tit-Language - German. (only text)
Also Georg Engeli from Switzerland arranged a webcam. I wish him many bird visitors!		In Jeremy's Garden many interesting stories happen - you can read always the latest here!
The German School in Budapest does honour to its street, the Cinege út ("Great-Tit-Street"), because also here the Great Tits are observed by a small video camera, the Cinege-Cam.		At Tiere im Garten from Gerhard Ebert you find adventures with fish and frogs, experiences in building a garden pond and many informationen not only concerning birds!
Very interesting and up tp date site with view in the Great Tit nest box of Stefan Bion, for this purpose with detailed technical explanation.

legend:	location - world wide web	www.boehmel.de
	location - global position	Lat Lng	48.73963° N 10.10936° E
	communication - electronic mail
	communication - line
	communication - cell
July 1997 -	communication - snail mail location - geo address	Manfred Boehmel Am Toebele 2 89551 Koenigsbronn Germany (South)