Blue tits and long-tailed tits feeding on aphids

 Blue tits and long-tailed tits often seem hyperactive, constantly searching for food. A moth larva would be a good meal, but they also eat much smaller prey, picking off aphids that infest plants. The blue tit below was eating aphids from the stalks of a hogweed umbel. The long-tailed tits, pictured futher down this post, were feeding on the woolly aphids that cover the trunk and stem of a crab apple tree in our garden.

Individually, tiny morsels of food, but since the aphids feed on plant sap, rich in sugars, they must provide a significant energy reward.