Blue tits tapping inside nestbox (1 Viewer)

[Wickham]

Blue tits made a nest about a week ago in a nestbox and I have since been hearing a constant tapping from inside, like a woodpecker. The box is on the wall of my house and I can hear the tapping for ten minutes or so several times a day, long after the nest was finished. What is she doing?

Incidentally, I have nest boxes with 25mm and 32mm diameter holes. Last year blue tits and great tits were investigating the same box with a 32mm hole the same day. The great tits persevered, made the hole a bit bigger and had a family while the blue tits nested somewhere else, ignoring other boxes with a 25mm diameter hole.

This year blue tits have chosen a box with a 32mm diameter hole, ignoring two other boxes with a 25mm diameter hole, so I don't think the RSPB hole size recommendations mean much to the birds.

 

[ColonelBlimp]

I've got a nest box with a camera and I have repeatedly seen a blue tit (I think the female) tapping woodpecker-style at the sides and hole of the box.

Presumably this is to test the strength of the wood to see if it is strong enough for nestbuilding, as I can't think of another reason.

 

[Marmot]

You will find the BT keeps pecking at the hole in the entance of the box to get it into the shape they prefer [ I dont think they like the perfect edges]. They also do this to the inside of the box as well. Once she is happy with it she starts doing something that resembles a push back motion to compact the nesting material in.

 

[Wickham]

I thought it might be the blue tit pecking at the hole but they didn't do it from the outside at all on this 32mm diameter hole (but did to a 25mm hole box which they have now ignored).

I saw nesting material go in over a week ago, so she is happily settled inside, but perhaps she's bored!

 

[DavidJJones]

You will find the BT keeps pecking at the hole in the entance of the box to get it into the shape they prefer [ I dont think they like the perfect edges]. They also do this to the inside of the box as well. Once she is happy with it she starts doing something that resembles a push back motion to compact the nesting material in.

The funny thing is that the female does this 'shuffling' long before there is any nesting material to compact!

Today I watched as our female Great Tit spend over ten minutes in what is still an empty box, hammering hell out of the floor and shuffling across it numerous times. The shuffles usually involve lowering the front end of her body down to the floor, holding her tail high in the air, spreading her wings, and it seems using a combination of rapid flapping and pushing with her legs to propel herself across the box.

I've watched Blue Tit females doing exactly the same, as does 'our' female Starling up in her box - although in the case of the Starlings I've also seen the male doing the occasional shuffle.