Story By: Delano Langras, Sub Editor: Michael Leidig,  Agency: Newsflash

These pictures show the beautiful home built by a family of blue tits inside a company’s outdoor ashtray as it lay unused during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The adorable pictures were snapped in the town of Sint-Oedenrode in the province of North Brabant in the Netherlands.

The birds have made their home inside the smokers’ ashtray outside the entrance to Destiny – a communications company in the town.

Since they moved in six young blue tits have been born on a moss-covered bed of cigarette butts.

They can now be seen putting their heads out from the holes where cigarettes normally disappear into the ashtray.

Renèe Mueller from Destiny received snaps of the birds from a colleague who had visited the office for the first time in a while as it was closed amid the COVID-19 restrictions.

She immediately put a note on the ashtray to prevent people from depositing their cigarettes in it.

Mueller told local media that the blue tits had been able to work on their nest in peace and quiet as smoking workers were absent.

She said that the company has quite a few smokers, but that everyone has been working from home since the COVID-19 outbreak and so the ashtray was unused.

Blue tits are known to return to the same nesting spot the following year.

However, Mueller said the birds need not fear that the smokers will claim their ashtray again.

She added: “Coincidentally, we had already laid down in the new company regulations that we would no longer allow smoking in front of the entrance. If the blue tits want to come back next year, they are very welcome.”

The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.