Here's something a little different from me - I've been wanting to do some nature based artwork for a while now, & I think I might have found my style for this with some artwork I made into family holiday greeting cards in December :)

#longtailedtits #wildlife #wildlifeart #birdart #markerart #paintmarkers #mastoart #art #originalart

Just been visited by a large family of long tailed tits. The collective name for these birds is, apparently, a ‘vollery’. This word doesn’t somehow capture the complete chaos of a long tail tit visit. I prefer ‘flurry’.

Here are two juveniles on our fat slab feeder. Looking forward to seeing them when their adult feathers grow out. #birds #aves #longtailedtits

Loved listening to the bird song in Kelvibgrove Square in the West End of Glasgow this morning. It's mostly the high-pitched squeaking of a family of newly fledged long-tailed tits.

#glasgow #kelvingrove #kelvingrovepark #birds #birdsong #longtailedtits #urbanwildlife #urbannnature #wildglasgow

For #LongTailedTits, it really does take a village https://phys.org/news/2025-05-tailed-tits-village.html paper by Jennifer Morinay et al.: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.14237

"about 70% of long-tailed tit nests are destroyed by predators every year... By early May, the season is too advanced to re-nest, and if a pair has lost their brood they give up for the year... they often become helpers, moving to another nest and assisting... Around half of all broods have helpers, typically just one or two, but up to eight at a single nest."

For long-tailed tits, it really does take a village

Any parent will tell you how useful it can be to have family living nearby, giving a helping hand when raising your children. In humans, relatives and even non-relatives act as childminders. Such behavior is widespread in other animals too, particularly birds.

Phys.org

Cuteness overload - a family of #fledgling #LongTailedTits parked and awaiting food from their parents.
In the woods at #WWTCastleEspie.

Shot on #canon, processed in #AffinityPhoto and #TopazLabs #GigaPixel.

@wwtworldwide @RSPB

#nature #naturephotography #wildlife #birds #young #immature #wwt #CountyDown #NorthernIreland

Long tailed tits are all about family. Not only do family members maintain boons throughout migration, they also foster parent for each other in seasons when things don't work out for them.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1081884
#sciencenews #birds #longtailedtits
Family first: Scientists reveal long-tailed tits' remarkable family bonds

Birds that babysit: scientists reveal long-tailed tits' remarkable family bonds

EurekAlert!

There is a little bit of Peter Parker in all #LongTailedTits

#VogelFlausch #BirdPhotography #Schwanzmeise

#Longtailedtits build these ethereal moss-lichen-cobweb nests in which to raise their broods, but fewer than one in five pairs succeed. They may help another pair to raise their brood instead. But if some species' survival hangs on such odds at the best of times, what will the present and worsening #ecologicalcrisis mean for them?

https://minden-pictures-inc-new.smartframe.io/p/00452494/d77e763fe73578aabb5bb78250a5f045?source=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubWluZGVucGljdHVyZXMuY29tL3N0b2NrLXBob3RvLWxvbmctdGFpbGVkLXRpdC1hZWdpdGhhbG9zLWNhdWRhdHVzLWZlZWRpbmcteW91bmctaW4tbmVzdC1uYXR1cmVwaG90b2dyYXBoeS1pbWFnZTAwNDUyNDk0Lmh0bWw%3D

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