Long-tailed tit with ELEVEN mouths to feed

RSPB urges bird-lovers to put out food this summer

June 2010: Dinner time can be a strenuous affair no matter what size your brood is, but spare a thought for the long-tailed tit captured on camera feeding her eleven chicks. Normally, a long-tailed tit would expect a brood of between six and eight.

DINNER QUEUE: A long-tailed tit and her brood of 11 chicks. Picture: Gary Shilton

The picture was taken by RSPB volunteer Gary Shilton, who spends two or three days a week at the RSPB's Fairburn Ings nature reserve near Castleford, West Yorkshire, meeting visitors and talking about the wildlife.

Many birds are busy feeding their young at the moment, and with some species having two or three broods in the coming weeks, the RSPB is urging everyone to continue putting out food and water over the summer.

Long-tailed tits were among the birds that struggled with the unusually cold weather this winter. They, like other small-bodied birds, are particularly susceptible to the cold, having to eat almost continuously to stay alive.

Long-tailed tits flew into the Top 10 of the wildlife charity's Big Garden Birdwatch for the first time last year suggesting they were getting used to feeding on seeds and peanuts in hanging feeders and on bird tables. But this year's survey showed a 27 per cent drop in sightings, pushing them to No 12.