Long tailed tit behaviour. (1 Viewer)

[carman]

We have some feeders near a large window in the house. Recently we have been visited by a pair of long tailed tits. One of them is determined to come in through the window. They visit frequently and at every visit one of them tries to come into the house. It probably can see a reflection of the feeders but it will make at least a dozen attempts on every visit.
this has been going on for alt least 3 weeks I just wonder if it will ever learn. We have lots of other birds visiting but none show this behaviour.

 

[Nutcracker]

More likely, seeing its own reflection, and wanting to meet / do battle with / whatever with this 'other Long-tailed Tit' :t:

 

[Andy Adcock]

The term 'bird brain' is appropriate, don't expect much improvement!

I remeber once in Trinidad, a Grassquit doing battle with it's reflection in a car wing mirror, totally oblivious to the amused passers by.

Our Greenfinches are really dumb and we have several fatal window strikes each year with many more temporary concusions, I'll regularly pick up stunned birds and set them aside somewhere quiet where they usally, fully recover. Not often Tits hit the window though?

We have fun every year watching the Great-spotted Woodpecker young trying to get the hang of our feeder which is designed for much smaller birds. The parents have been coming for a few years now and are very adept but the young are clumsy and it's very comical to see them hanging on the the wire, looking up at the feeder and thinking 'what now then'!

Great also to watch the adults using their anvil in the pine outside our lounge window. They wedge a pine cone in to the slot that they've chiseled out, using it as a vice and then extract the seeds.

Who needs a TV!

Andy

 

[dantheman]

The term 'bird brain' is appropriate, don't expect much improvement!

I remeber once in Trinidad, a Grassquit doing battle with it's reflection in a car wing mirror, totally oblivious to the amused passers by.

Our Greenfinches are really dumb and we have several fatal window strikes each year with many more temporary concusions, I'll regularly pick up stunned birds and set them aside somewhere quiet where they usally, fully recover. Not often Tits hit the window though?

Not sure you can describe birds as 'dumb'. It's usually the humans who are the dumb ones, altering the environment in ways that birds don't understand.

There are several threads on here about sticking decals/other devices on windows to stop birds accidentally flying into them.

 

[Andy Adcock]

Not sure you can describe birds as 'dumb'. It's usually the humans who are the dumb ones, altering the environment in ways that birds don't understand.

There are several threads on here about sticking decals/other devices on windows to stop birds accidentally flying into them.

Anything that feeds for hours and hours in the same place for the whole of the summer and still cannot remember that there's a window in the way, especially when it may itself have flown in to that window several times already is dumb....... dumb. dumb, dumb!

Ever seen Pheasants on the side of the Road when your car is hurtling in their direction? They have a choice, fly in to the wide open fields on one side and off to safety or run in to the road and get splattered, you can guess which option they most often go for. I've had several expensive repair jobs for this exact reason, is that intelligence?

It's clear that some families are a bit brighter than others but I stand by my statement that Greenfinches, certainly compared to our Tits, both Great and Blue, which never hit the window, are dumb.

Andy

 

[Nutcracker]

Ever seen Pheasants on the side of the Road when your car is hurtling in their direction? They have a choice, fly in to the wide open fields on one side and off to safety or run in to the road and get splattered, you can guess which option they most often go for. I've had several expensive repair jobs for this exact reason, is that intelligence?

Humans again - they've been raised in a gamekeeper's shed with 100,000 other Pheasant chicks, and no parents, and therefore also no parental input about how to live and what dangers there are in the world. Their sole purpose in life is to be gun fodder for the bloodthirsty psychopathic killers who infest these islands. High time this sort of canned shooting was banned.

 

[NearlyNoviceBirder]

I have a longtailed tit that started this behaviour yesterday. Because we have Georgian style windows, it perches on the cross bars and stare at itself before attacking which does at least mean that so far it is not flying in to the window at speed. I have noticed it utters a warcry of a call before each attack, which is interesting.