The Blue Tit is one of our favourite birds in the garden. Known for its acrobatic skills and parrot-like colours it has a special place in the hearts of many gardeners.
But the Blue Tit has several cousins that it shares our gardens with. Some of these cousins often go overlooked unless you known where they live. One such relative is the Coal Tit.
At a smaller size to the Blue Tit, the Coal Tit is the smallest tit species in Europe. It is a largely black and white bird, with panda-like markings on the head with a grey back and a cream stomach.
There is one brilliant way of identifying a Coal Tit – the bird you are looking at should have a white stripe down the nape of the neck. In which case, you have a Coal Tit.
Coal Tits tend to be shyer than their relatives, often not staying still for longer than a second for fear of being chased off by one of the larger birds at the bird table.
They prefer coniferous trees over deciduous, as these offer denser vegetation and therefore more places to hide.
Within these trees they will hunt for invertebrates hiding between the needles and inside pine cones.
Listen out for a ‘Sweet-ie sweet-ie sweet-ie’ call coming from the evergreens and you might be in luck with having a Coal Tit visit your feeders.
Don’t forget…
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