Richard Collins: Altruism of the long-tailed tits or not

The long-tailed tit’s nest is an architectural marvel. A pair spends up to three weeks gathering moss hair and lichen to create a cosy cocoon, held together by strands of spiders’ web. Positioned in a thorny bush or tree, facing eastwards to catch the morning sunlight, the nest expands elastically as the nestlings grow inside it. There may be up to 15 chicks, although the average is around nine.

Long-tails are honorary tits, of a different family to that of our ‘true’ Irish species, the ‘blue’ ‘great’ and ‘coal’. The lifestyle is tit-like but, when it comes to raising chicks, long-tails do things differently.