Another first for the garden today, long-tailed tits (stjertmeis) displaying and perhtaps also mating? What do you think? Isn’t it a bit early?
Another first for the garden today, long-tailed tits (stjertmeis) displaying and perhaps also mating? What do you think? Isn’t it a bit early? I may also have seen the hovering courtship display, thinking first the bird was fly catching….
Long-tailed tits (stjertmeis, meaning literally Tail Tits in Norwegian) forage on natural food far and wide in winter here and I see them only once a year…it’s always a joy to meet them, particularly when I see them from my home office desk! However, they had moved on in a few minutes!
I see long-tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus) (Norw: stjertmeis) in the garden usually only once each winter. Unlike most tits, they wander during the winter…and a small group of 8 birds passed through the garden today. I usually “spot” them when I hear their characteristic call. I was planting garlic in the garden and rushed inside for my camera! I was surprised to see them foraging on the ground under the bird feeder. I can’t recall seeing them taking food from my feeder before, nor seen them on the ground. However, they had gone again after about 15 minutes. It’s the white-headed rase (ssp. caudatus) we have here!
Long-tailed tits was one of the few birds I recognised in Japan in the spring!
I was pleased with the pictures despite it being very dark!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
