Bird for January – Blue tit

BLUE TIT (Parus caeruleus)

The blue tit is one of the best loved of our garden birds. It is also one of the commonest – the RSPB’s annual Garden Birdwatch records its presence in almost 100% of our gardens; the countryside population is estimated at almost 3.5 million pairs. It can easily be distinguished from the other members of the family by its bright blue crown – the great tit and the coal tit, for example, have black crowns. All three, as well as the unrelated long-tailed tit, are regular frequenters of our bird-food stations. The blue tit’s usual preferred food is insects, caterpillars and so on, but during the winter months it relies on seeds and the peanuts and other items which we offer.

In earlier days, when doorstep milk deliveries were much commoner than now, the blue tit quickly learned to pierce or remove the bottle-tops and to drink the cream (the current general preference for semi-skimmed milk doesn’t appear to apply to blue tits!)

Another of this bird’s characteristics which we find appealing is its readiness to make use of nest-boxes. The natural choice would be a hole in a tree or wall but any sort of suitable cavity is used; letter boxes and the glove compartments of cars have been used, for example. On a moss and grass foundation, the nest consists of hair, wool and feathers. The single annual brood may number from about 5 to as many as 14 young. Most of them will not live to adulthood, but that’s nature’s way of maintaining a balanced population.

   Text by George Metcalfe

   Photograph by John Sheppard

 

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