Willow Tit decline (1 Viewer)

[Farnboro John]

I think a major clue is in the fact that of the tits only Willow excavates its own nest, and looking at the bill of a Willow Tit it is apparent that it must do so in fairly soft (most likely dead and rotting?) timber: in which case a marauding Great Spot will be in and eating eggs or young in short order. Add to that a 300% increase in Great Spots and you have a recipe for disaster.

John

 

[Sangahyando]

I have noticed that here (Zurich-CH) they have started cutting dead trees off at 4 or 6 meters above ground. I haven't been observing long enough, but at least we seem to still have a variety of woodpeckers year around.

(Never encountered a Willow Tit, I run into Marsh Tit once a week or so).

On that note, it would be interesting to know how the Alpine population is doing (given its different habitat choices), compared to the lowland birds that occur elsewhere in Western Europe, including Britain.

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Interesting article about declines in Finland, where the issues seem to be more habitat management related:

Decades of research confirm: the biggest cause of decline in the willow tit population is forest management – decaying trees are vital for the endangered species

If there are no decaying trees present in a forest, willow tits cannot build their nests there.

www.oulu.fi

 

[Farnboro John]

Interesting article about declines in Finland, where the issues seem to be more habitat management related:

Decades of research confirm: the biggest cause of decline in the willow tit population is forest management – decaying trees are vital for the endangered species

If there are no decaying trees present in a forest, willow tits cannot build their nests there.

www.oulu.fi

No, this is exactly the same as here: no dead standing wood. Finland is just a big tree factory, that's what they do. Wildlife is expected to deal with it or die. Guess which happens to specialists.....

John

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

No, this is exactly the same as here: no dead standing wood. Finland is just a big tree factory, that's what they do. Wildlife is expected to deal with it or die. Guess which happens to specialists.....

John

My understanding is that this is a bit of an issue here, but that the recent sharp decline is more caused by factors such as competition from other species and predation, possibly as knock on effects from supplementary feeding and nestbox provision. Those don't appear to be significant issues in Finland, so the causes are much more about the loss of dead wood as a result of forest management there.

 

[JTweedie]

The RSPB said their next goal is to identify the causes for the declines. They also publish a toolbox for managing habitat for them.

But one of the things I wonder is that we manage habitats to suit some species but that leads to other species being shoved out. I posted recently about the shifting of Pink Footed Geese migration routes and one of the factors expressed for this was the flooding of farmland that the birds had previously used. This was to restore wetlands presumably to benefit other species.

We're always tinkering - do we manage landscapes too much perhaps?

 

[Jos Stratford]

My understanding is that this is a bit of an issue here, but that the recent sharp decline is more caused by factors such as competition from other species and predation, possibly as knock on effects from supplementary feeding and nestbox provision. Those don't appear to be significant issues in Finland, so the causes are much more about the loss of dead wood as a result of forest management there.

Based on my experience, I say that habitat is key, with perhaps high woodpecker density or high density of competing Great/Blue Tits a compounding factor when habitat is stressed. Adding detail to my earlier post, in a typical winter my feeders attract up to 15-20 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, 3-4 Middle Spotted, around four White-backed and variable numbers of all the others. Great Tits can number up to 300, Blue Tits up to 150. There is however a super abundance of dead standing wood in varying states of decay. Neither Willow nor Marsh Tits appear to be showing any long-term decline at this location.

 

[Strontium Dog]

I read something a while back about special Willow Tit nesting boxes which can be excavated like a dead tree, but I don't know how successful they've been.

 

[Torchepot]

I’m not sure that habitat loss is the immediate cause of such precipitous declines such as are currently being reported in the U.K.
I think Andrew is right the competition from blue and great tits and predation from GSW are just too intense. There are only 7 properties in our little valley that border the willow tit habitat and 6 of them stock their bird feeders year round, the bird food and feeder section of our local hardware stores is huge. We appear to be feeding birds on an industrial scale in the U.K. and certainly far more than anything I experienced living in France. I would hazard a guess that Lithuania doesn’t share our compulsive bird feeding culture to the same degree either.
Two years ago I counted 5 GSW nests in less than a mile along our river, all in the core willow tit habitat. I persuaded my neighbour to stop putting up peanut feeders and there are now less nests but I fear it’s too late for our willow tits. The problem is that there is no unaffected population to restock vacant territories- the valleys next to us are just the same.
Where we used to live in France - on the Western edge of the Massif Central - we were surrounded by at least 9 willow tit territories and they seemed to be expanding Westwards. They were colonising recently clear felled conifer plantations and I was surprised by how small the dead or rotten wood was that they used for nests - 3 or 4 inches across!