The tit swooped in and nicked the squirrel’s nut (Picture: Vadim Trunov/Caters)

A pesky bird managed to steal a nut that a squirrel had hidden in a snowball.

The red squirrel’s reaction to the thieving titmouse was caught on camera.

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Bold as brass, the cheeky titmouse swoops in and plucks the nut from the snowball with ease.

The images, which show the small songbird fronting up to the surprised rodent, were caught on camera by Vadim Trunov, from Voronezh, Russia.


The 33-year-old was in a forest in Rostov feeding the squirrels, when he decided to entertain them by hiding food in the snow.

He said: ‘I often go to the forest to feed squirrels but this time I also decided to play with the squirrels.

It started out quite nicely (Picture: Vadim Trunov/Caters)

Vadim said he was shocked to see the fight ensue but guessed the little bird must have been hungry to take on a squirrel more than twice its size.



‘I put some nuts in a snowball and this squirrel came over and sensed it straight away.

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‘The squirrel grabbed the snowball in its paws and began to take the nuts out of the snow.

‘Suddenly a bird flew up and sat on a snowball, which was held by a squirrel.

‘The bird pulled the nut out of the snowball and flew away.’

Alas, the tit flew away with his dinner (Picture: Vadim Trunov/Caters)

He added: ‘This brave little bird was not frightened of the squirrel and flew to her as close as possible.

‘I think winter and hunger causes animals to come quite close to each other.’