12/06/2026
Trigger warning...
A few weeks ago, three of our great tit babies flew the nest! We were delighted and let them use our garden undisturbed as we watched them learn to fly. One of the fledglings seemed to be slow with his learning despite his parents cheering it all day long, and bringing food throughout the day. When we went to sleep that night, he was still hopping around in the garden flying to and from relatively low branches.
Sadly, we found his little body in the garden the next day 😭. Apparently it's a tough world out there as around 50% of juveniles die in the first few weeks after leaving the nest. The great t**s have an average lifespan of about 3 years!
A few days later we saw another one of the fledglings in a tree nearby with it's tufty feathers, it seemed to be doing well! So we are keeping our fingers crossed for the rest of the flock... 🤞🤞🤞🪶