Birdwatching webchat with Peter Holden MBE, 28 May 1-2pm

It's been great fun answering some challenging questions. We have been discussing here at GNHQ how best to encourage further involvement with nature, especially in the garden, and with grandchildren. Knowing that the RSPB will soon be launching its 'Make Your Nature Count' survey, which is a sort of summer version of its better-known 'Big garden birdwatch'. It would be great to involve more people in this, as I really believe an interest in wildlife can both begin and be enhanced on your own doorstep.

I understand there's going to be something on your website soon - keep an eye!

bigknitter

Swans are said to mate for life - is this true? And are there other species that do this? What is the advantage to them? (!)

Yes, this is largely true, though divorce is not unheard of, and birds that are bereaved will often acquire a new partner. For mute swans there is a surplus population on many of our rivers, which we see at places like Stratford upon Avon, and other places where herds of these birds can be seen. These are juveniles or sub-adults waiting for a vacancy!

This faithfulness is even more remarkable among the "winter" swans, which arrive from the Arctic as they will travel thousands of miles and often find the same mate.

However, I am not sure that we should always attach the human characteristic of "emotion" to this behaviour. Mute swans, once on territory, will never move very far, and so will stay with the same partner for mutual convenience.

For some other species which we think of being faithful, the truth may be quite different. Ospreys in Scotland will keep the same mate year after year, but after each breeding season, the birds will travel separately to West Africa, spend the winter separately, and return to the nest site the following spring. I would suggest (cynic!) that this is not an emotional attachment to the other bird but an attachment to the nest site, where it bred successfully the previous year, and if it happens to find the same partner then the pair bond will be reformed.

GrandmaH

I've lived in this house for 20 years & have never seen this before this year.
Bluetits are queueing up on a buddleia bush outside our living room window to flutter at the glass. I put up a window feeder to try & discourage them as I was worried they may hurt themselves & they now sit in the feeder & tap at the window(& help themselves to the food before they fly off). After a few days they started doing it to my kitchen window & also cloakroom & front door- which are frosted- so doubtful it is because they can see their reflections & think it is a rival bird to be attacked.
We have nest boxes in the garden -although I don't think they are being used this year- but they are nesting in a vent outside the kitchen.
We have no wooden frames so they cannot be after anything living on the windows & it is only the glass they peck at. It cannot be the food as it started before I put the feeder on the window & there are plenty of bird feeders in the back garden anyway.
It started with just one bird but now we have several.
It's amusing the grandchildren & driving the cats potty but I'd love to know what it going on if you have any idea.
Thank you
H

whenim64

I had a bluetit that played on my car windscreen for a few mornings last year. It would flutter to the top of the windscreen then appear to slide down to the bonnet, then do it all over again for about half an hour. I assumed it was trying to attract its reflection, but not sure now, given what GrandmaH has said.

This is all about birds and reflections and as I assume the observations relate to this time of year, ie. the breeding season, we can guess they are linked to breeding in some way. This must be related to birds defending their territory and wishing to attract and deter a competitor. Often the birds concerned are chaffinches and in the days when cars had shiny hubcaps, it was pied wagtails attacking at street level!

These blue tits were almost certainly trying to drive off what they imagined was an opponent, but if you're attacking a "mirror image", you can never win! The more aggressive the territory owner, the more aggressive will appear the reflection, and even if the territory owner submits, so will the reflection, which may be enough for the owner to be inspired to attack again! It's the avian equivalent of an arms race! However, very often when I have seen this behaviour it does appear to be birds simply "playing", except for the chaffinch, which loudly attacked its reflection in my bedroom window at 5 o clock each morning this spring. The time of day may be significant because some windows will act more like mirrors when the sun shines from a particular direction.

fritter

Sorry for this ignorant question - I have never known much about birds! One thing that really intrigues me is how they sleep. Why don't they fall out of trees?

No it's not ignorant - it worried me for years!

I'm not sure I can describe it in words, but I'll have a go. The tendons in a bird's leg are constructed so that when they are pulled tight the toes are drawn in. The tighter the pull on the tendon, the tighter the pull on the claws. It means that when a bird relaxes and sinks down on its branch, instead of relaxing, the tendon becomes more taut, and the more relaxed, the tighter the grip.

twinsmum100

NannaJeanie YES It was a Jay thank you, it was really striking, beautiful in fact, really made my day.

Another question for Peter,
How do I start getting more birds to visit my garden? Should I buy a table, hang things from trees? Living in Richmond there are lots of the green parakeets, what would encourage them to my garden, I know my twins would love seeing them

Judging by many of your comments, a lot of people are having great success attracting birds to their gardens, and to a certain extent it will depend on location. However, one general point to remember is that the majority of what we call garden birds were originally woodland species and are using gardens as a replacement for that habitat.

We can help by designing our gardens to resemble a woodland glade with (if possible) a mixture of taller shrubs and trees, lower shrubs and grassy areas. That does not prevent it being a nice garden or planting conventional garden flowers. A garden with variety of layers will produce a variety of different habitats, and if possible, leave a little area to be "wild", where grass grows longer and shrubs are allowed to develop their natural shape. Introducing thorny plants, like bramble and rose, which can crawl through the "wilderness" will provide nest sites for small birds and deter predators such as magpies. Many gardens tend to be over-tidy!

Obviously additional food can make a difference. Feeding all year round is now recommended, and by having a variety of feeders and a variety of foods will attract, hopefully, a variety of species. Personally, I have not given up putting out kitchen scraps, though much of the advice these days tends to be about commercial bird food - which is very good, but comes at a high price.

Most people would gladly swap you some parakeets as where they are common they are almost in pest proportions. So you may not want to be too welcoming!

Clarevoyant

My grandchildren live in the city and have very little contact with nature. What's the best way to get them interested in birds and conservation?

I think this is a hugely important question. A great number of children are growing up in a society where they are not exposed to nature for all sorts of reasons. Schools and environmental organisations are increasingly aware of this growing gap and some are trying to do something to improve it.

Grandparents can play a vital role, especially during holiday times, by getting children into "real countryside", and experiencing nature firsthand. Many nature reserves, especially RSPB, and country parks have organised activities to help the children and getting youngsters along to these cold provide the ideal holiday activity. Alternatively, doing it yourself and letting a child explore a "wild place" with a magnifying glass, a simple guide book, or even binoculars might be the pivotal activity that will trigger an interest in nature that might last a lifetime.

I would also suggest enrolling children in the junior section of one of the major charities such as RSPB or the Wildlife Trusts so they receive stimulating educational material throughout the year.

One final point: don't assume there is no nature in cities. I have recently led walks through pocket parks in central London and found a variety of species - from goldfinches to parakeets and insects varying from ladybirds to moths. And even in the city centre children can learn the "dangers of a stinging nettle" and the benefits of a dock leaf.

eGJ

Wow; can rember Peter Holden from the young RSPB junior section years ago when my DDs were young!
Is there a specific time related to dawn that the Dawn Chorus to start each day?

If you remember my activities with the junior RSPB, you may remember I was always setting projects for children to try and answer questions like this for themselves. So, I could say why not try and find out!

As it happens, the day after your question came in I happened to be up at 3.45 for a reason I will not go into (but may be age-related!) and I heard a blackbird just starting to sing, but obviously starting time will vary in different parts of the country at different times of year and our old youth surveys showed that there was often an order to which birds "woke up". Blackbirds being quite early and skylarks were later on wet mornings.

Dare I suggest that this might be a good project for grandchildren? Certainly to introduce young children to the wonders of the countryside around dawn is something that grandparents might like to consider.

saturdayschild

I live in an urban area and in the last few years I've heard for more birdsong in the night. Has this always happened or is it because the lights are never off? - and what effect is this having on bird behaviour? Thanks

artygran

We have not lived in this house for long but we have a bird that often sings outside our house at about 3.30 in the morning when it is still dark. It sounds like a blackbird. I have never heard a bird singing this early, before dawn. Is this unusual behaviour?

Obviously there are some birds that will sing all night: nightingales being the famous example. Recently scientists have shown that these are usually unmated males, desperate to attract a female, but other birds will also sing at night, such as sedge warblers.

Mostly the birds we hear at night have had their song "triggered" by bright lights, and it is not unusual to hear robins singing in the middle of the night where there are bright security lights for example. I even heard of a robin which would sing occasionally in the night when car headlights happened to light up its bush.

It would be unusual to hear a blackbird in the middle of the night, but certainly not impossible.

Birds in busy areas are having to adapt their behaviour because of human activity. Not only this additional song, but even the sound frequency at which they sing during the day may be increasing in order to overcome local traffic noise.

firenze

We have jays in our garden but they do get attacked by the magpies - sometimes with quite horrible results. Is there anything I can do to stop this?

I'm really amazed by this, as I would've thought jays could stick up for themselves. Being crows, and quite large, and often predatory, I would expect them to give as good as they get, and the two species often live quite close together. Therefore your observation is really interesting.

There have been some other questions about jays, and some interesting responses, one quoting Bill Oddie. I would certainly agree with these observations: jays are much more common than many people imagine and they have moved from the countryside into the suburbs and even the city centres. Despite their bright colours and loud voices, they can be very secretive.

I have jays living near my home in Bedfordshire, and I know they visit my garden, but I only catch a glimpse of them a few times a year, often in autumn when they are searching for food supplies - especially acorns - and again in Spring, when they are looking for nests to rob. Jays are just as much egg-thieves as magpies.

jeni

Why do the great tits in the garden build a nest, lay eggs and then abandon it? This has happened for the last two years running.

This was the first question of several which related to birds failing to breed. It is really imposible to be certain of what happened, and we can only speculate.

If a bird goes to the efforts of producing a clutch of eggs, then it intends to produce young if it possibly can, and one can only conclude that something dramatic happened to one or both the parents.

If only a nest was built with no eggs, then it is possible that the birds found a better nest site elsewhere. What I find fascinating is the number of failures in a year. Vast numbers of eggs and small birds do not survive because of changing weather, lack of food, predation, disturbance and lots of other reasons. In most bird populations, only a tiny percentage of young will survive their first few weeks and an even smaller percentage get through to the breeding season the next year. On average, out of two adult great tits and eight young in June, only two will be alive next April.

However, an individual bird only needs to reproduce successfully once during its lifetime to achieve a sustainable population!

NannaJeannie

nanajan I have a regular Sparrowhawk which swoops in every month or so and takes out a goldfinch. I feed niger seeds to my goldfinches, so I get plenty. I feel very mean that I am laying on a food source for the Sparrowhawk, but they are magnificent creatures too. Would Peter care to say a few words about Sparrowhawks and wild bird populations?

twinsmum100 was it a Jay? I only say that because they are very striking and have some blue in them

nanajan

The tree outside our living room (which is up high above the garage, so when we look out we are level with the top of the tree) is daily full of about half a dozen beautiful goldfinches, presumably all males as they are so colourful. We have lived here 11 years and this is the first year I can remember seeing so many every day. Do they have an predators, as they are so colourful they are not very camouflaged so must be easy to spot ?

Great to have questions about goldfinches. Not only are they really attractive, but they've spread into suburban and even urban gardens in recent years, bringing a splash of colour to even the dullest garden!

nanajan. your birds may have been males or females, because it is hard to tell the difference. However, about now they will be joined by others without any red on their faces, which will be the juveniles. They may look gaudy, but they can be quite well camouflaged when sitting amongst foliage. They are further protected from predators by their habit of colonial living, often flying in small flocks with a bouncy flight and with a blizzard of wings would help confuse a predator.

nanajeannie, I'm really pleased that you're not anti-sparrowhawk, even though you have seen them take some of your goldfinches. To make this more of a challenge for the sparrowhawk, you could try moving your bird feeders round the garden so that have to take different routes to attack, and in general, feeders should be near to cover, where the birds can hide if danger strikes.

Harrikat

Is it better for garden birds to find their own food during the summer, and do you have any suggestions for bird-feeding without attracting rats?

Thanks for asking that, because the advice in many old bird books has been changed and the experts are now suggesting that we should feed garden birds all through the year - even in summer. The reason is that research has shown that birds do not often breed as successfully in gardens as they do in the wider countryside, because of a shortage of food. This is especially true of tits and sparrows.

So, quality bird food in proper feeders where they cannot take too big a portions can help more young to survive, not just during the spring, but also through the summer and early autumn.

Bird feeders hanging from trees and bushes should not attract rats and mice, and any bits that are dropped are usually picked up by smaller birds during the day.