On 7th January our new season of talks opened with an entertaining talk given by Dominic Couzens entitled ‘The secret life of garden birds’.
Dominic is an award winning author of books about birds and conservation. He is particularly passionate about bird behaviour and began his talk with one of our favourite birds, the friendly Robin. It turns out that the males are so territorial that they kill 10 % of other males who intrude on their patch. They only suck up to us in the garden to get the worms we disturb when digging. The Coal Tits will mate with several males so that that their chosen male gets help in feeding their brood. 34% of their eggs are fertilised by other males. The Dunnocks are also highly promiscuous, the male having several wives. The charming Long Tailed Tits will cuddle up in a long line on a branch on cold nights. The female will build a beautiful nest of moss glued together with spider’s webs and lined with up to 3000 feathers. Another fascinating fact was about Blue Tits. A female will choose a male with the brightest yellow chest. He will get this by eating caterpillars that contain Carotinoid so the more caterpillars he can consume the brighter will his breast be and the more attractive to the female! These were some of the facts we learned about our garden birds and our friendly Robin is not what he seemed after all. Debbie Carter Comments are closed.
|
Photo: Avocets (Izzy Fry)
The headers display photos taken by our members. Do get in touch via the Contact Form if you'd like to submit a photo for selection.
Archives
February 2025
Categories
All
|