A senior curator from the Natural History Museum (NHM) at Tring is carrying out a study to work out why blue tits nest in cigarette bins.
Douglas Russell received reports that more of the birds were nesting in the bins. As part of his research, he recovered several bins where the birds had nested.
In an interview with the BBC, Douglas said: “I’ve tried for years to get examples of this. I think I’ve been trying since 2007. Every time, it’s been too late. They get emptied or people won’t cooperate.”
The nests that were collected in Norfolk and Yorkshire this July have been quarantined in a freezer to prevent contamination, external to the museum’s other collections. The bins will be examined with a CT scanner to obtain a 3D model of the entire bin’s interior, including the nesting material and the number of cigarettes.
Toxicology tests will also be carried out using swabs and samples of the interior of the bin, as the birds were exposed to this, to find out why the birds continue to nest in these peculiar containers.
The museum’s curator believes the boxes are attractive to blue tits because they have small entrances that are likely to protect them from predators.
Douglas continued: “So what cigarette box manufacturers are doing inadvertently, is creating a fantastic nesting box for birds.
“What I am trying to do is demonstrate how this behaviour is highly dangerous to the birds, and we need to motivate for a change in the design of cigarette bins to stop the birds prospecting them and using them as nest sites.”
Photo credit: Douglas Russell LinkedIn // BSS Industrial
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