Blue tit, so called a small titmouse, painted in sky blue and bright yellow. In the Linnean scientific work "Systema Naturae" this representative of the passerine was given the name Cyanistes caeruleus.
Origin of the species and description
Photo: Bird common blue tit
The blue tit, as this forest bird is also called, was described by the Swiss biologist Konrad Gesner in 1555 as Parus caeruleus, where the first word meant “tit” and the second meant “dark blue” or “azure”. The modern name - Cyanistes comes from the ancient Greek kuanos, which also means bright blue.
The oldest remains of tits were found in Hungary and date back to the Pliocene. The ancestors of the blue tit have separated from the main branch of the tits and are a subgenus of this family. Nine more representatives have similar morphological characteristics, which are distinguished into subspecies, they have slight differences in appearance and character, as well as different habitats. Blue tit are found in Europe and Asia, where representatives of different subspecies can be found in relatively small areas.
Appearance and features
Photo: Common blue tit, or blue tit
This species of titmouse is smaller than many other members of the family, although blue tits are not the smallest, for example, like muscovites. The size of the body is 12 cm long, the wingspan is 18 cm, and the weight is about 11 g. The birds have a small but sharp black beak and a short tail. The legs are gray-blue and the eyes are dark brown.
The top of the head is bright blue, the forehead and nape are white. Below the head is ringed with a bluish-black stripe, which begins at the beak, passes through the line of the eye. At the back of the head, this line widens and descends to the base of the neck. A strip of the same color descends vertically from the beak, which then passes along the throat line, connecting to the back of the head, bordering the white cheeks.
The nape, tail and wings are bluish-blue, and the back has a greenish-yellow coloration, which may differ from individual to individual, depending on the subspecies and habitat. The abdomen has a deep yellow color with a dark central line. For the yellow color of the plumage, the blue tit diet is responsible. If the menu contains a lot of yellow-green caterpillars with carotene pigment, then the yellow color is more saturated.
The tops of the wing coverts are colored white, which creates a transverse stripe against a blue background. The color of the females is slightly paler, but the difference is almost not noticeable. Young blue tits are more yellow, without a blue cap, and blue has a gray tint.
Where does the common blue tit live?
Photo: Blue Tit in Russia
The bright blue bird has settled throughout Europe, with the exception of those northern regions where there is no forest. In the south, the territory of distribution covers the north-west of Africa, the Canary Islands, in Asia it reaches the northern regions of Syria, Iraq, Iran.
These brightly colored birds prefer deciduous forests, where they feel equally well, both in the thicket and on the edges, along the banks of rivers and streams. Of the tree species, he prefers oak and birch groves, willow thickets, you can also find them in mixed forests.
In arid regions, they prefer to inhabit river floodplains and lake shores. Blue tit has adapted well to urban conditions, easily inhabits parks and forest parks, squares, gardens, giving preference to those places where there are old hollow trees.
Deciduous forests serve as a home for the blue bird in Africa, for the most part, these are different types of oak:
- Portuguese,
- suberic,
- stone.
In Libya and Morocco, it lives in cedar forests and juniper thickets. Island subspecies from the Mediterranean settle in the thickets of the comb and date palm. Favorite biotopes in Asian countries: oak, pine, cedar forests.
The farther south the region is, the higher the blue tit is found in the mountains:
- Alps up to 1.7 thousand m,
- Pyrenees up to 1.8 thousand m,
- Caucasus up to 3.5 thousand m,
- Zagros up to 2 thousand m.
Now you know where the blue tit lives. Let's see what she eats.
What does the common blue tit feed on?
Photo: Blue Tit
A small bird is of great benefit, destroying forest pests. Insects make up 4/5 of her diet. In each region, preference is given to a certain set that parasitizes plants, these are very small insects and their larvae, spiders, ticks, aphids.
Interesting fact: Blue tit do not catch insects in the air, but collect them along the trunk and branches, very rarely going down to the ground.
Depending on the time of year and the life cycle of insects, the composition of the menu may undergo changes. So in the spring, while the larvae have not yet appeared, arachnids are the main food product. In winter, they extract from under the bark of insects and their pupae that have hidden for the winter, for example, the golden-tailed butterfly.
In the summer, their menu includes:
- flower beetles weevils,
- gypsy moth caterpillars,
- leafworm caterpillars,
- sawflies,
- chestnut moth miner,
- woody tiger moth,
- ants,
- flies,
- centipedes,
- arachnids,
- hemiptera,
- retinoptera.
They are very diligent they are in the destruction of aphids. Birds carefully examine branch by branch in search of new prey. They manage to hang upside down at the very ends, pecking at small insects. In the cold season, when there are no insects, blue tit go to plant food, consisting of seeds and fruits.
For the most part, these are seeds:
- birch,
- cypress,
- ate,
- pine trees,
- oak,
- maple,
- beech.
Birds collect seeds from grasses sticking out from under the snow, look for wintering insects in the stems. By the end of the cold season, most of the diet begins to be occupied by pollen and anthers from the catkins of willow, alder, willow, and aspen.
Interesting fact: The weight, structure of the body, wing, tail and legs of the blue tit easily helps it to hold on to the ends of branches, foliage and even on hanging catkins of plants.
They willingly come to eat at the feeders, which are hung by people in parks, summer cottages, gardens, where they eat sunflower seeds, cereals, bacon.
Features of character and lifestyle
Photo: Bird common blue tit
Blue tit are extremely agile and restless birds, they tirelessly fly from branches to branch, busily looking for food. Their flight is also fast, it is wave-like in the pattern, while the wings work very quickly. Hanging from branches, birdies perform acrobatic somersaults, showing good coordination of movements.
Adults, and the blue tit lives an average of 4.5 years, are sedentary. Young people, exploring the surroundings, are looking for new territories, but mass settlements in new habitats in blue tit are rare.
The blue tit has a richer palette of sounds than other members of the tit family. This is a multiple repetition of voiced "qi", the same sonorous trill, chirping, chirping when in contact with other birds in a flock.
When nesting, blue tits look for a hollow, but sometimes they use other people's empty ones, and sometimes they settle in the most unexpected places: mailboxes, hedges or road signs. In some areas, they use burrows and hollows in stumps. These small tits boldly enter into battle with the larger species of the family, defending their place of residence.
Inside the hollow, if it is not spacious enough, and the wood is soft, rotten, blue tit can pluck out and remove excess wood. Inside, a rounded bowl-shaped nest is built from bark, grass, wool, feathers, moss. The construction of the nest of birds begins at the end of March and before the first days of April. This takes about two weeks. Throughout the first half of the day, the blue tit collects and brings material and flies up to the hollow with it in an hour to thirty times.
Her nest reaches about six centimeters in thickness of the tray. Dry leaves of grass, horsetail, hair of wild and domestic animals, down and feathers of various birds, moss, everything is carefully intertwined and has good thermal insulation. The flyhole of the blue tit is also always carefully cleaned, and the nest itself, by the time the babies grow up, resembles felt.
Interesting fact: Naturalists from Great Britain noticed that blue tits peck holes in milk cartons and eat its remains. They have been accustomed to this food since the days when it was customary to leave milk at the door of the house.
Social structure and reproduction
Photo: A pair of blue tit
These small titmouses love to unite in flocks, which can be seen around the feeders in winter or on the branches of hawthorn, mountain ash, where they are looking for food together. By the last month of winter, these groups disintegrate, males look for and identify with the territory. They begin to protect it, showing aggression towards other blue tit males.
The mating games of these birds are intricate:
- fluttering flight,
- high ups,
- hovering with spread wings and tail,
- fast dive.
At this time, males try to appear larger, raise feathers on the back of their heads, forming a crest, fluff up, dissolve feathers on their wings and tail, perform a ritual dance on the ground. Having met their partner, the males remain faithful to her, and the formation of a new pair is marked by joint singing.
In April, the couple begins to look for a nest and build a nest. Such a place is located above two meters, the diameter of the tap hole should not exceed 30 cm in diameter, otherwise larger birds and predators will crawl into it.
In May, eggs are laid, the clutch can number 6 - 12 eggs, in the deciduous forests of Europe, a larger number is laid - up to 13 - 14 eggs. If the clutch is too large, it may mean that two females are using the nest. In mixed forests and conifers in the nest, there are no more than 7 pieces, in city parks their number is less.
White eggs with buffy specks are about 16 mm long and 12 mm wide, average weight 0.9 - 11 g. The female incubates the clutch for 2 weeks, and the partner at this time gets food and brings it to her every half hour. If the mother decides to go in search of food on her own, then she carefully covers the clutch with litter. When the nest is in danger, the couple courageously tries to protect it, while the birds make hiss or buzzing sounds.
Hairless chicks are born gradually, sometimes this time stretches for several days. At this time, they are defenseless and a caring mother covers them with her body, and the father takes care of food. A week later, both parents tirelessly fly out to hunt for insects to feed the growing offspring.
In three weeks, the chicks fledge and leave the parental home, this happens in the first half of July. For another 7 - 10 days, the parents continue to feed the chicks. In some regions, birds make two clutches per season, in which case the second wave of offspring becomes independent by the beginning of August.
Natural enemies of the common blue tit
Photo: Blue tit in flight
For blue tit enemies, first of all, birds of prey: hawks, owls. Even a common jay or a smaller starling can destroy the nest of a blue tit, feast on eggs or defenseless babies.
Small representatives of mustelids can get into the hollow of a titmouse, but their habitat does not coincide much with blue tits. Only small weasels can easily penetrate into the hollow and destroy the entire brood. Larger ones: ferrets, martens are not able to get into the hole of the entrance, but they can hunt for babies who have just got out of the nest and cannot fly well.
In city parks, gardens, in the backyard areas of blue tit are trapped by cats. Even rodents, gray and red squirrels can occupy a hollow, having dined with eggs, if the hole in the entrance allows it to do this.
Bad weather conditions can also be attributed to the enemies of tits. If in May and July, during the period of feeding the chicks, there is cold rainy weather, then the main food - caterpillars, appears little. It is much more difficult to preserve healthy offspring for blue tits in such conditions.
Parasites are found in the nests of birds. Adult blue tit are heavily infested with them after the chicks that have emerged grow up. This prevents the birds from making a second clutch.
Interesting fact: Ornithologists noted that blue tits that laid eggs a second time threw them because of fleas and other parasites, which by that time had accumulated in large numbers in the nest.
Population and status of the species
Photo: Blue tit, also known as blue tit
Blue Tit inhabits all European regions with a temperate and Mediterranean climate, it is absent only in Iceland and the Scottish north, as well as in the north of Scandinavia, Finland and Russia. The northern border of the area runs along 67, shifting to the 65th parallel, approaching the eastern outlines of the border in the Urals, descending to 62 ° N. sh. In recent years, this species of titmouses has been found in the southern forest zone of Western Siberia. It is home to, according to rough estimates, up to 45 million pairs of birds.
In Asia, the species Cyanistes caeruleus is found in Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria. In Africa - in Morocco, Libya, Tunisia. There is an upward trend in the numbers of these beautiful birds everywhere.
These titmouses are sedentary in the southern regions. In the north, in the cold season, they migrate to warmer places - to the south or west, in the mountains, with cold weather, birds descend closer to the valleys. Such movements are associated with the presence or absence of a sufficient food supply. Also, frosty winters contribute to longer travel.
An interesting fact: Blue tit of the British Isles rarely fly further than 30 km, and those individuals that are found within the Baltic coast can make long journeys, reaching the southern shores of the Mediterranean, having traveled up to two thousand kilometers. Such seasonal migrations begin at the end of September.
The Red Book ranks this bird species as the one causing the least concern, with a tendency to increase. Bright blue with a yellow belly blue tit is a decoration of forests and gardens. This tireless worker eats more pests per year than any other bird. To attract them to your gardens and backyard plots, you can hang feeders and nest boxes with a small hole for the taphole.
