Tits up

As I peruse the latest news on my laptop in bed of a morning a bevy of blue tits jostle  for pecking space on the bird feeders, while others queue up impatiently in the lilac bush. 

After the headlines I usually turn to the science news and today I read a report* that British tits are evolving longer beaks because so many of them take advantage of garden bird feeders. Apparently we supply twice as much food in the UK than on the continent and as a result those tits best adapted to  peck peanuts have the advantage in rates of survival and reproduction.

Witness evoluton in action - for peanuts!

*See here and a blue tit in waiting as an extra