In this Tail & Tale we enjoy a close look at a family of long-tailed tits. A breeding pair with well grown up young in the nest. Over a week I have observed and photographed the adults feeding their young. Until the very last 'day-at-the-nest' before their fledging on May 6th (2021).

Many hours of observations gave me wonderful close-up views of their activities at the nest. Fascinating feeding activities and features, captured below in 'Tail & Tale' imagery and story.

Profile

The long-tailed tit is an 'odd one out' among the tits. It doesn't have a direct lineage with the 'real tits' family (Paridae). DNA science has established that the long-tailed tits have their own family (Aegithalidae), counting ten species world wide.
The long-tailed tit surely enjoys good looks. That is not to say that the Paridae can't catch the eye. But that small light-coloured 'fuzz ball' with that strikingly long tail has that cuddlyness which the Paridae are lacking.

That cuddlyness is amplified by their sociable nature, as they usually are seen moving in groups. Groups of one or even several families together.

The 'real tits' are cavity breeders. Typically in trees, brick walls and of course in the little bird houses that we provide them in our gardens. The long-tailed tits go about their nesting in a totally different way. They build their nest. A beautiful oval round structure, constructed with small patches of different species of mosses which are neatly held together by mixed-in sticky spider silk. And as a perfect finishing touch, the inner wall of the nest is lined entirely with soft fluffy feathers (of other birds).

That nest is not only an eye-catching piece-of-art. Its functionality is no less amazing, providing a good deal of 'stretch'. An essential feature of its impressive capacity to house the two adults and their large number of young (8-12). As the young in the nest grow up to ultimately adult size, the stretch makes the nest expand where needed. That's most apparent and needed around the nest opening when several young reach out of the opening in being fed by the adults. And that stretch keeps up with the growth, all the way to the point of fledging....!

The size of the breeding population of the long-tailed tit in the Netherlands is estimated at around 25,000 pairs (Sovon, Birdatlas Nederlands, period 2013-2015). That is a modest figure compared to the much more common 'real tits' like the great tit (375-625 K pairs) and the blue tit (250-400 K pairs), but about twice as large as for the marsh tit (13-15 K pairs).
I did find nests of the marsh tit in the same area in the past two years. Finding a first one of the long-tailed tit was so to say..... a matter of time.

A first find

So yes this find of a nest of the long-tailed tit was my first. In tens of years of walking and birding in the dune belt along the Dutch West coast, I simply never had the luck of finding one.
This first find on 28 April (2021)  had a memorable 'prelude'. I was busy conducting my third round of counting of breeding birds (SOVON, Breeding birds Monotoring Project - BMP), on the grounds of the  'Huis te Vogelenzang' estate. It was lunchtime for which I landed on a stash of logs with generous sitting comfort. Minutes before, I had past a birder/photographer. We greeted and talked briefly. I pointed out to him a blackcap and a garden warbler I had just counted, and which greeted us in a melodious duet. Some minutes later he slowly strolled past me again, continuing his birding. Heading in the direction of some beehives at the edge of the open field before me.

A green woodpecker flew overhead and landed on the trunk of a large white poplar. It quickly moved out of my sight to the back side of the trunk. That raised my interest in the possibility of finding a nest site (..after lunch).

The birder/photographer had made it to near the beehives, and passed (unwisely) close in front of these. Too close also to the taste of the active bees flying in and out. The man swept his hand a couple of time through his hair. And kept doing that more and more energetically, while pacing away from the hives faster and faster. Finally, with the camera on the grond and two hands in his hair, he was trying to shake off the persistently annoyed bees.
I couldn't resist a malicious smile, while enjoying my sandwhich .......with honey.

Time then for that green woodpecker.  I had to go off path through some dense undergrowth, to inspect the other side of the poplar on the hoped for presence of as nest cavities. There were, none.

Still standing there, I spotted a long-tailed tit flying off. And only a moment later another one appeared. It  briefly moved through the same bunch of branches, from where the first one had flown off. Curious I scanned the spot with my binos. Instantly I discerned that silver-green bulge, that surely had to be their nest. What a fortuitious coincidence and wonderful surprise. One...with a distinct silver lining. Thank you green woodpecker !

Photography

Back home from my BMP birds count, I swiftly readied by photogear. Not to waste the photo friendly weather and the opportunity of a first round of photos of the long-tailed tits. That turned out less straight forward than hoped for. The dense bunch of branches was blocking out direct view on the nest and nest opening in just about every direction. By protective tit's design I realised. But cumbersome for my photography. At long last, I managed finding at least one decent line of sight.
And on that one was only one fitting spot for my tripod. On a narrow ridge with gulleys on both sides. A thicket of spiny backberry branches aound the ankles completed my starting photography challenges. Off on a handicapped start .......

NB. To avoid any disturbing of their nesting, all the observations and photos below were made under cover of camouflage netting, and from a respectable distance (10 metres).

Feeding, feeding, ........

The pair of long-tailed tits didn't raise the bar of my handicaps. They continued unperturbed their feeding shuttles to and from the nest. Completely ignoring my under-cover presence at some ten metres distance. There were absolutely no hesitations in their feeding calls at the nest.

Literature on long-tailed tits breeding mentions that a feeding pair sometimes gets the help of some of the other tits of their (family) group. My observations over several days indicated that this wasn't the case here. The feeding intervals were quite regular in duration. And the two adults often fed their young, in back to back nest calls. Suggesting that they made their food searches and flight shuttles often together in tandem.

Menu

In the week and many hours of observations, I saw the adults feed their young countless times. Tireless shuttling as befits dedicated parents. And just as insatiable as the fast growing young appeared to be.

Bills full of insects. And now and then a caterpillar as well. Which species of insects they collected was hard to discern, at the respectable distance (10 m) of taking photos. But one insect stood out as ubiquitous. The Mark's fly (Bibio marci).
The photo below shows an adult feed a bill full of these small black flies. Bills being so full that sometimes some spilling happened in the frentic feeding. Some flies dropped in between the branches under the nest opening. It was fascinating to see how the adults,  noticing the spilling, quickly went down to pick up these spilled ones and feed them second time round. So no wastage, neither of their shuttle energy nor of food.

Clean nest

The unabated  feeding rounds call for equally regular sanitary routines. Observing and photographing the latter is just as fascinating as the preceeding feeding calls.

An adult finishing a feeding waits and checks whether any young make a sanitary call. Sometimes one does, sometimes none. The young calls for sanitising by turning around and by presenting its butt in the nest opening, and often with its tail sticking straight out. It produces its dropping ('diper sack'), which the adult picks 'straight from the butt' and flies off with it for disposal. This way there is no contact at all between the dropping and the nest. Only once did I see a young produce a diper in absence of an adult. By reversing itself far enough out of the nest opening, it made the 'diper' drop between the branches below, also without any contact with the nest. Demonstrations of innate genetic coding of a perfect sanitary routine, which keeps nest and young clean and free of germs. In last year's breeding season,  I observed and photographed a nesting pair of Eurasian Nuthatches. Sanitary routines between these adults and their young were similar.

The two photos below show beautifully that the young are genetically 'preconditioned' even to help remove a dropping that intially got depositied inside the nest. Removing it later by taking it into its bill and pass it to the adult waiting for the dropping.
A fascinating sanitary cooperation between adult and young. I saw it happen this way only once. Wit luck, having captured it on photo (two sequential frames).

NB. Last year spring in a photoshoot of a family of nesting Eurasian Nuthatches, I saw an identical 'sanitary routine'. Then the adult also took over a dropping 'diper sack' through the nest opening. It was invisible then though, whether or not a young did pass it in its bill to the waiting adult outside.

Fledging

In my photoshoot on May 5th it is clear that the young will fledge very soon. The young look fully grown and upon feeding reach out of the nest opening very far. Not only their heads stick out of the opening. Now and then even a wing flips out, which moments later is pulled back in with some difficulty.

I shoot a couple of more frames of the feeding, realising that these may well turn out to be the last ones.

Between the feeding rounds, one or two of the young keep looking out of the opening. Resting and awaiting the next feeding round. I notice several times that these resting young regularly raise their feathers on their heads and in their throats. Making them look pretty cute as shown in the photo below.

Final shots

The next day, as expected, these images turn out being the final ones. On May 6th early morning , I find an empty nest. All young have fledged. And disappeared as I do not see them in the near surroundings.

It remains unclear how many young there were in the nest. During the feeding sessions, the maximum number seen out in the nest opening at any one time was five. Four heads and one ('sanitory') tail to be precise. As mentioned, regular clutches of the long-tailed tit number 8-12 eggs. One could deduce that may be the stretch capacity of the nest opening limits that nuber of 'shows' to five. And that there were indeed more young (between 8 en 12) here also, being fed (and .... 'sanitised') taking their turns in the nest opening.

I enjoyed these fascinating and telling days and hours of observing and shooting photos. With plenty moments of admiration and amazement about the beauty of nature. Beautiful lasting memories captured again in the imagery and annotations of this Tail & Tale.

A special 'Heads-or-Tails' tale, .....paraphrased.

'Rendez-vous'

Adults with their fledged youngsters usually stay in the surroudings of the nest for some time after the fledging. Initially I didn't see them there anymore, but my  'rendez-vous' smile didn't have to wait long. A week later I spotted the family at no more than twenty metres form the nest location. Busy with fouraging on aphid on leaves of a flowering common bird cherry (prunus padus). Busy still of course with, ......unabated feeding of their fledgelings.