Blue-tit behaving strangely (1 Viewer)

We live in France in isolated woodland and have many bird visitors including blue-tits. Over the last three days we've had a blue-tit keep coming to the windows, flying up and down obsessively, hovering, clinging to the bars between the window panes, and sometimes sitting on a chair leaning against the window. This behaviour has gone on for three to four days, lessening over the last two days. We wonder if the bird is seeing his/her reflection. I suggested to my hubby that maybe he or she hasn't found a mate this year and is flirting with his/her reflection. Does anyone have any clues?

Many thanks for any ideas.

As you say, probably a male seeing his reflection and thus, challenging and fighting with the "interloper". Also they used to regularly attack the old style chrome wing mirrors on my dad's cars back in the 1960s and 70s.
Blue and Great Tits also learnt to peck through the silver foil tops of milk bottles to get to the cream if the milk wasn't taken in straight away.

https://youtu.be/gmiifHsGIks

https://youtu.be/60jnYst_01U

Wol said:

I suggested to my hubby that maybe he or she hasn't found a mate this year and is flirting with his/her reflection. Does anyone have any clues?

Click to expand...

PYRTLE said:

As you say, probably a male seeing his reflection and thus, challenging and fighting with the "interloper". Also they used to regularly attack the old style chrome wing mirrors on my dad's cars back in the 1960s and 70s.
Blue and Great Tits also learnt to peck through the silver foil tops of milk bottles to get to the cream if the milk wasn't taken in straight away.

https://youtu.be/gmiifHsGIks

https://youtu.be/60jnYst_01U

Click to expand...

I agree! Their African cousin does it as well. An African Blue Tit at Jbel Moussa Lodge, northern Morocco, went on with this behaviour for weeks even though it has successfully mated (it nested only about 8 meters away from the car). A short video is posted on twitter a year ago (can be seen without login).

PYRTLE said:

As you say, probably a male seeing his reflection and thus, challenging and fighting with the "interloper". Also they used to regularly attack the old style chrome wing mirrors on my dad's cars back in the 1960s and 70s.
Blue and Great Tits also learnt to peck through the silver foil tops of milk bottles to get to the cream if the milk wasn't taken in straight away.

https://youtu.be/gmiifHsGIks

https://youtu.be/60jnYst_01U

Click to expand...

Many thanks and apologies for my late reply. Our little friend is still at it! I'm sure he's a lonely single. He was eyeing up a long-tailed tit this morning but she flew off very quickly.
Many thanks for your thoughts Pyrtle.

Acrocephalus said:

I agree! Their African cousin does it as well. An African Blue Tit at Jbel Moussa Lodge, northern Morocco, went on with this behaviour for weeks even though it has successfully mated (it nested only about 8 meters away from the car). A short video is posted on twitter a year ago (can be seen without login).

Click to expand...

Thank you Mohamed!

This sort of behavior is not restricted to tits. I once had a pied wagtail doing exactly the same thing..... facing off to its own reflection in our patio door and getting very agitated when its remonstrations failed to see off the interloper. The more it tried to fight off the rival the more it fought back. It was extremely amusing to watch.