Breeding ecology of Blue Tits

Understanding whether natural populations can adapt fast enough to climate change is one of the more challenging questions in ecology and conservation biology.  Changes in climate and environmental cues can create a mismatch in phenology between interacting species threatening the stability of food chains and ecosystems. We have monitored the breeding season of European Blue Tits and the development of new Oak leaves in spring since 2002 to study the synchrony in the abundance of caterpillars with the period of highest nutritional demands by this bird’s chicks.  With a network of hundreds of nest boxes and trees we have been able also to ask a broad range of questions about the evolution, behaviour and health of wild bird populations.  

• BlueTit_metadata
• Oaks_metadata

Blue Tits and Oak phenology DOIs:

• Blue tits
• Oaks

This experiment is linked with the following programs and institutions:

• Studies of Populations of Individual Birds Network & Database