Eurasian Blue Tit

Identification

A tiny, hyperactive tit of 10.5–12 cm, the Eurasian Blue Tit packs a lot of colour into a small package: a sky-blue crown and nape, blue wing coverts, a blue-edged tail, lemon-yellow underparts, a clean white face split by a dark eye-line, and a short black bib. The back is soft greenish olive. Juveniles look washed out with yellow cheeks, but the blue cap and yellow belly separate it from the larger, black-capped Great Tit at a glance.

Blue Tits are acrobats, hanging upside-down at the tips of twigs and probing buds and leaf clusters for caterpillars, which form the bulk of the chicks' diet in a good oak wood. They are among the most regular users of nest boxes and will also nest in letterboxes, drainpipes and wall cavities, laying 8–12 eggs and timing the brood to the spring caterpillar peak. The song is a thin, high 'tsee-tsee-tsee' that often ends in a trill, and autumn brings wandering flocks, joined by other tits, that move through hedges and gardens together.

Winter is the easiest time to watch them: any feeder offering peanuts, sunflower hearts or fat balls will pull them in, often minutes after the first bird finds it, since they readily copy one another. Watch how the birds hang — the one underneath, wings half-open, is almost always the Blue Tit. In spring, check holes in old trees and nest boxes towards the end of April.