Some British birds can choose the perfect moment to lay their eggs in the spring to ensure their chicks get the best possible start in life.

Blue tits, great tits, chaffinches and pied flycatchers have the capacity to alter their laying time in response to seasonal temperatures.

For more than 50 years, volunteers at the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) have recorded the first egglaying dates of British birds.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh and the BTO combined 100,000 observations of the data for the four species with daily temperature records covering the same period.

The birds were able to cope with seasonal variations brought about by climate change. If spring temperatures rise rapidly in the future, the species' ability to adjust their nesting times should help them survive.