Foraging behaviour of Blue Tits Parus caeruleus in a patchy environment under contrasting levels of natural food supply

We analysed the foraging behaviour of free‐ranging Blue Tits Parus caeruleus in open holm oak Quercus ilex woodlands of western Spain during winter. Such woodlands are patchy for foraging tits because of the scattered distribution of trees and the patterns of abundance of canopy arthropods within and among trees. Results were compared with those obtained in spring of the same year, when we found that the foraging behaviour and spatial distribution of Blue Tits were largely unaffected by food availability (Pulido and Díaz 1997). Patch (tree) residence time was highly variable both within and among individual birds, and it was uncorrelated with either previous travel time or patch quality. Contrary to a priori expectations, the behaviour of tits did not conform to short‐term energy maximizing rules in winter, in spite of a 2.5‐fold decrease in food supply from spring to winter and a likely 2‐fold increase in bird requirements. Instead, birds tended to fly towards patches that were further away than locally available. Overall, we conclude that energy intake rate was not the fitness‐related currency that birds were trying to maximize while foraging.