Great tits!

OP - September 16, 2009, 07:22 AM

Great tits!

It sounds like the avian equivalent of an Ozzy Osbourne legend. Great tits have been discovered killing and eating bats by pecking their heads open.
Although bats have been reported preying on songbirds before, this is the first time great tits have been observed to prey on bats.

The birds seek out bats as they wake from hibernation and usually eat them in the cave, though sometimes they carry them to a nearby tree.
"The birds don't kill the bats before they start eating them," says Siemers, "but the bats eventually die when the birds peck open their brain case."

As the bats are still very cold, only a degree above ambient temperature, they are extremely slow and easy for the birds to subdue.
The scientists ran an experiment to supply the tits with food, and discovered that this reduced consumption.
"This shows that the birds are predating the bats for food in times of scarcity. It shows how inventive this species can be," says Siemers.

Est?k and Siemers also ran a playback experiment where they recorded and played the calls that the bats made as they woke from hibernation. The great tits were attracted to the calls.
"For a bat, these calls are very low frequency, a maximum of 15 kiloHertz, but at a high frequency for the tits, above scientifically established hearing levels for this species, yet they react to them," says Siemers.

Gareth Jones, an expert on bat behaviour at the University of Bristol, says the finding is unexpected and novel. "I don't know of any other studies of predation of hibernating bats by small birds. It's a big jump for the tits, given that their normal prey are caterpillars."

There you go. Great tits are dangerous. yes