Bird school

• Brambling
• Blue tit
• Bullfinch
• Blackbird
• Barn swallow
• Bohemian waxwing
• Black woodpecker
• Black redstart
• Blackcap
• Chaffinch
• Chiffchaff
• Crow
• Coal tit
• Crested tit
• Common swift
• Common treecreeper
• Dunnock
• Fieldfare
• Greenfinch
• Goldfinch
• Greater woodpecker
• Garden warbler
• Great tit
• Green woodpecker
• House martin
• House sparrow
• Hawfinch
• Jackdaw
• Linnet
• Long-tailed tit
• Lesser whitethroat
• Lesser spotted woodpecker
• Marsh tit
• Magpie
• Mistle thrush
• Nightingale
• Nuthatch
• Pheasant
• Pied flycatcher
• Redpoll
• Rook
• Redstart
• Robin
• Spotted flycatcher
• Siskin
• Starling
• Song thrush
• Yellowhammer
• Winter wren
• Willow
• Tree sparrow
• Wood pigeon
• White wagtail
• Willow tit
• Whitethroat

The blue tit

Did you know?

The male

The blue tit is extremely irritable and persistent. Once it has decided what it wants it will not let itself be run off without a proper fight. During the mating season both the male and the female raise the feathers on their crowns, which stand as a small blue crest. Even before the mating season the male feeds the female, something he continues doing once she has started brooding on the eggs. The blue tit has, for reasons unknown, markedly increased its numbers since 1985. During the last 30 years there has also been an expansion in its breeding area in the north of Europe.

Appearance
The blue tit is smaller than the great tit. The crown is of a sky blue colour and the face is mostly white with a black band across the eyes.

Similar bird
The great tit is larger and has a black crown and chin.

Sounds and song
Very varied.

Food and bird tables
Common guest at the bird table.
The blue tit is often sighted at tables. Will tend to visit them in the winter when it pecks at tallow, eats seeds rich on oil and bread. The winter diet also consists of seeds from birch trees and rowanberries, etc.

The nest and hollows
Likes to nest in hollows.
The blue tits make some of the largest families of the small birds; up to 16 eggs is not unusual. Since the large broods litter the hollows they will often move from one hollow to another when they lay eggs for the second brood of the season, as the hollows need to be aired out. The next year it is, however, fit for use again. Even though it likes to nest in boxes it will also seek out vacant hollows in trees and cracks in mountainsides. The nest consists of wool, hair and a couple of feathers built on a base of moss, always built solely by the female, assisted by the male.