Great tits acquire taste for bats

A Hungarian cave has turned out to be a larder of highly unusual food for great tits: hibernating pipistrelle bats.

Over two winters, researchers found the birds were systematically hunting bats by sight and sound as they hibernated through the cold months.



Writing in the journal Biology Letters, the scientists say this is the first proof of bat-hunting in songbirds.

Great tits usually dine on smaller prey such as insects and seeds, with bat-eating probably very rare. The researchers found the birds preferred other food when they could get it.

With brief video.