www.balgreen.edin.sch.uk

BlueTit Web Cam!

Above this writing there is a picture of a Blue tit sitting on her eggs. The bird laid nine eggs

around the beginning of May.

You can see the bird at the top of the photo facing right.

Below shows the home of the Blue tit. Our janitor

Mr. Hyland connected up the camera which sits inside the bird box to a television situated in the corridor near our hall. Everyone can see the bird and her eggs. Every day pupils come into school and see how happy she is!

Sometimes it looks like she is eating the eggs - but really she is turning them over to keep them well incubated.

Stay turned for further updates regarding new

pupils for Balgreen!

We think this is fantastic!!!!

Taylor and Iona P6J

Our eggs have now hatched and we have new pupils at Balgreen!

In these last two photos you can see that there

are only six chicks left out of the nine eggs.You may be wondering why there are three chicks missing. This is because they have died from natural causes which often happens. We think that the mother has removed them from the remaining chicks.

The mother now feeds the chicks more than one hundred times a day.The chicks depend on their mother to live.

Iona Geddes and Taylor Elliott P6J

Did You Know?

Bluetits are very agile birds, and love to swing from nut feeders where you might be lucky enough to see them performing some acrobatic feats! Blue tits are especially fond of peanuts, sunflower seeds and suet, but feed on insects during the summer.

Bluetits normally pair for life. In spring they build a cup-shaped nest made of moss and grass and lined with hair, feathers and wool. They usually build their nests in holes in trees or walls, but will also make their homes in nestboxes.

The female lays 7-13 eggs in April or May, which she incubates for 12-16 days. It's hard to believe, but a single brood of young blue tits may eat between 600 and 1,000 caterpillars a day! Both parents feed the hungry chicks, and they fledge (leave the nest) after two or three weeks. You can spot young blue tits because they have yellow cheeks, whereas adult birds have white cheek feathers.

On average only one fledgling will survive to breed again the following year.