Lovely scruffy little juvenile blue tit waiting for his turn
Blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) are very common birds. They are one of the commonest birds in Britain, with over 15 million birds overwintering in the UK and about 3 1/2 million breeding pairs during the spring and summer. There seem at time to be clouds of blue tits at the woods. We have a large number of breeding blue tits using our 31 nest boxes as well as natural holes in our veteran oak, ash, willow and elder trees.
Despite being common, I love these little birds. They have a wonderful perky nature, inquisitive, restless and bold. They are almost always the first birds to a new feeder. At times they buzz past my head to reach the feeders so close that I can feel the wind beneath their tiny wings. When on the feeders they put up a good show against other much larger birds sharing the space. Constantly on the move, fluffing their feathers against the cold, hanging upside down just because they can. I could honestly sit and watch just blue tits all day.
This week I had the chance to spend a while watching and photographing these lovely little birds for a couple of hours and they didn’t disappoint. Scruffy little juvenile birds not yet in their full colours were mixed in with seasoned veteran adults as they came in to the feeders, alongside the coal tits, great tits, nuthatches, great spotted woodpeckers, reed buntings, chaffinches and greenfinches. The light was great, and I managed to snatch some nice pictures using the 400m
Blue tit on the feeder – rather handsome.
Blue tit waiting for his turn
Blue tit fluffed up in the wind and cold
The pecking order – the queue for the feeder.
m lens.
They are wonderful pictures of Bluebirds! I knew there are lots of Bluebirds in the world, but I had no idea there are over 15 million, and that’s only counting those in the UK!
Wonderful fearless little birds
Gorgeous photo of the juvenile, really made me smile!
Great pictures of these cute little birds. They sound, personality-wise, a lot like our Black-capped Chickadees (midwestern US). We can sometimes feed chickadees by hand in a local park, that’s how brave they are!
Yes, they are very similar. The black capped chickadee and the European willow tit are very similar birds and were once thought to be the same species. We have a few willow tit at the woods but they are much more rare than the blue tit, which also nests in gardens and parks. All of these little titmice/chickadees seem to have a similar brave personality!