WASHINGTON: One of the UK’s favourite birds, the blue tit, could be harder to spot in cities across Scotland this summer after a disastrous breeding season.
New research by Scottish scientists suggests a staggering 90 per cent of blue tit nests in urban areas failed to produce a single surviving chick – and the cause is a mystery.
Dr Davide Dominoni, an expert on urban ecology, said: “This year we observed a very bad year for the birds in Glasgow – much worse when compared to last year.
“We had more or less the same number of breeding pairs as last year but 90 per cent of the nests completely failed, with not a single chick.”
As part of the study, Dr Dominoni, of Glasgow University, established 500 nest boxes at five Scottish sites – two in woodland near Loch Lomond, one on farmland near Clydebank and two in Glasgow – and observed them last year and this.
He said: “One of the first observations we made is that in these two urban sites the blue tit parents work extremely hard during this nesting period when they have chicks in the nest. Male and female go back regularly to the nest and give food to the nest.
“Urban parents provide food to the chicks more often, they go back to the nest box more frequently than in the forest sites, they’re working harder to make sure the chicks will fledge.
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