One of the great joys of Autumn for me, along with the changing colour of the leaves, are mixed flocks of tits flittering around the trees and hedges. Little birds that nested in pairs during the Spring and defended their territory, now reform large social flocks made up of Blue, Coal, Great, Marsh and Willow tits, as well as Long tail tits (that aren’t actually true tits at all, but are a separate group of birds altogether) and finally another non-tit, the Goldcrest also joins these mixed flocks. There are a number of benefits to forming these social groups, including safety in numbers; a large group of birds is much more likely to spot a predator, especially important now many of the leaves have dropped and there is less cover. Feeding in a group also gives more birds the opportunity to find a food source that one bird has already located.
By River Six
Photo by Pixabay
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