The 78th field season of the Wytham Tit Study draws to a close

This year, the first great tit and blue tit eggs was laid on the 3rd and 4th of April respectively (5 days earlier than the first eggs of 2023). There were close to record numbers of both great tit and blue tit nests (359 and 543 respectively), most likely due to a good spring in 2023 where there was minimal nestling mortality, coupled with a mild winter. Nest failure was comparatively high this year, particularly for blue tits. The mean number of fledglings per nest was 4.7 and 4.9 for great tits and blue tits respectively (compared to 7.0 and 5.8 in 2023).