Food hoarding Coal Tits

One of the things I enjoy the most about watching birds is that even familiar species often surprise me with behaviour I have not seen before. I watched birds feeding on seed and peanut feeders a few days ago. A pair of Coal Tits, Periparus ater, showed their usual energetic prowess: a constant back and forth between the feeders, quickly snatching a seed and then flying away, to return within a few seconds later for another one. This time though, I could see where the Coal Tits were going and they were not flying away from the feeder to eat their seed in solitude, without the hassle of the larger birds, instead, they were storing the seeds: on the ground, pushing the seed into the soil, in the cracks in the pavement, on branches, in a conifer bush or in pots.
 Although corvids are more widely known to store food, food storing is common in Tits (parids). Marsh, Willow and Crested Tits are regular food storers, (although Great and Blue Tits are not). Parids store insects and other invertebrates (after decapitating them), seeds and nuts. They might store hundreds to thousands of items per day, using a different hiding place per item and even covering the hidden item with a piece of bark or stone. They might store the items a short distance away from where they were found, or up to 100 m away. They may often retrieve the food after a few days, but possibly much longer as not readily available food items (such as caterpillars) are often seen consumed by tits in the winter. A Japanese species, the Varied Tit, can feed its nestlings up to 5% of stored seeds from the previous summer-autumn. Parids display good memory not only spatial, to go to the exact place where the food was stored, but also to remember which caches have already been retrieved. Food storing in such small birds might contribute to survival when food is strongly seasonal or unpredictable and it can be retrieved when its consumption will make the largest contribution to survival.
 I managed a very short clip of a Coal Tit storing a seed.


But I wasn't the only one watching. This blue tit was also very interested in the Coal Tits.

After watching it, the Blue Tit came right up to a Coal Tit about to hide a seed - it is just visible in its beak in the photo below. After a brief hesitation, the Coal Tit decided to go somewhere else and left just after I took the following shot. Sorry about picture quality today, but all the shots were taken through glass.

More information
David F Sherry (1989). Food storing in the Paridae Wilson Bulletin, 101 (2), 289-304

January Chorus

There are a surprisingly high number of bird species that start singing in January. A handful of species can pretty much sing all through the winter: Robins, Collared Doves, Woodpigeons and, surprisingly, Great Tits and Blue Tits. Some mild winters the Song Thrush will join them. Although the days are still cold and short, light levels are increasing by the day and this set birds into 'get ready for breeding' mood. One after the other birds join the chorus.
 In the last two weeks, Coal Tits, Song Thrushes, Stock Doves, Starlings (above), Dunnocks, Goldfinches and Chaffinches have, ones boldly, others more tentatively, taken positions and started to practice their singing. Even Sparrows sitting under the eaves have been doing their chirping.

Robin singing

Song Thrush