Blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)
There’s only one bird that comes close to equalling the memorable status of the Robin amongst British people, and that is, of course, the humble and plentiful Blue tit.
Striking in appearance and replete with gorgeous colours, it’s hard to miss the blues, greens and yellows of this particular bird. With its characteristic dark band around the eyes, something presumably Adam Ant took inspiration from, you’ll see this little fellow all year round and in the vast majority of gardens across the UK. Certainly, it is a curious fact that approximately 98% of gardens across the UK will, at some point over winter, receive a visit from a Blue tit.
Characteristics
You will know the Blue tit as the bird of three principle colours: blue, yellow and green. Being of rather petite stature, the Blue tit wears a blue cap which falls onto primarily white facial features with a dark band encircling the head, parallel to the eyes. Its yellow breast, green back and distinctive light and dark blue wings, with a similarly coloured short tail, complete the picture.
Of all tits native to the UK, Cyanistes caeruleus is the only one with any hint of blue on its plumage.
Nesting & breeding: diary of a Blue Tit
Month | Activity |
---|---|
February | Searching for a nesting site |
March | Feeding in preparation for breeding period |
April | Nest building period. The nest is cup-shaped and made of moss, grass, feathers and wool, and is often lined with hair. Blue Tits will nest in any small holes making them common occupants of nest boxes. Females lay 7 – 13 eggs in April-May. Incubation time is approximately 12 – 16 days. The chicks fledge after 19 days. |
May | Breeding: one egg per day (in the morning), chicks hatch naked and blind – incredibly vulnerable. |
June | Fledgling period for the young; parents call from outside box to encourage young out of the box or nest |
July | Fledglings stay with parents for a few weeks after they fledge – peanuts and sunflower hearts can be a great source of nutrition to help Blue tits build up strength. |
Favourite “haunts”
Blue tits can be found in parks, hedgerows, woodland and, of course, gardens. They occupy the vast majority of the UK, apart from some small northern Scottish island territory, and are resident all year round. What’s fascinating about the Blue tit is its loyalty to home territory: only in extreme cases will a Blue tit wander more than a few kilometres away from its original place of birth.
You’ll find Blue tit populations fluctuate considerably, especially over winter when, owing to considerably harsh conditions, a rapid decline may ensue. If there were a particularly harsh winter period, with freezing conditions, many Blue tits may fail to find an appropriate source of food for survival.
Diet
Blue tits adore eating insects, their favourite food (caterpillars). Despite this, though, Blue tits generally have a mixed and varied diet, and wouldn’t necessarily be called fussy eaters.
Put out seeds, peanuts, sunflower hearts or mealworm, and your feeders will almost certainly be seen to by one of your Blue tits. Interestingly, if you were to notice four or five Blue tits feeding in your garden, you can be sure those birds are supporting up to twenty or more juvenile tits. *It is important to note that whole peanuts can be dangerous for young, juvenile Blue tits.
Whilst reading your blog I have been glancing up and watching the Blue Tits (and other birds) darting back and forth to the feeders. I have filled all feeders with the sustainable energy foods suggested by you.
I leave out dried mealworms, peanuts and seeds to attract as many birds as possible into my garden. I’m getting a lots of greattits right now but I’m not seeing many blutits which seems unusual to me. They nest every year in our garden so I’m hoping they’ll come back.
Can I put a robin nest near the bluetit nest or will the robins frighten the bluetits away? Should a robins nest be the same height or nearer the ground?
I also have a pair of ring collared doves which nest on a shelf we put up for them against the wall! They were trying to land twigs in our kitchen window so we thought they were trying to build a nest. We put up the shelf, put their twigs in it and we were rewarded with three lots of babies, two years running! Sadly only one dove has appeared in the garden this year. Perhaps we’ve seen the last if that parry.
For two years now we have seen blue tits taking nesting material in to the nest box in October.
we used to string up peanuts in their shells. Is this good practice?
Adri.
It may be worth mentioning that whole peanuts can be dangerous for young Blue Tits
Hi Terry,
Yes, thank you for pointing this out. I’ll amend the content accordingly.
We are only fifty miles from John O Groats and have a good number of blue tits visiting. All our feeders have to be in cages designed to be squirrel proof but our problem is jackdaws. Even the ground feeders need to be in a square cage, we get blue tit, siskin, redpoll as well as robin blackbirds, (resident and migrant, different beak colours) we put out every day. Suet pellets, fat balls, mixed seed, Niger seed, sunflower hearts, and peanuts in a feeder so they cannot be got whole.
I have lots of blue tits that visit my garden all day long and are making short work of sunflower hearts, which they love, and fat blocks. I have noticed that they also sit in my mahonia eating all the yellow flowers, which is not as pleasing to me. Is this common?
We have a flock of around a dozen Blue Tit juveniles visiting several times a day at the moment for sunflower hearts and fat balls, often with Great Tits and Bull Finches as well. Between them they see off a 20kg sack of the Sunflower Hearts in no time!
The Blue Tit family usually wait to nest when our Oa=k Trees have plenty of grubs for them to feeg their young!!! Very Clever little birds!!!
Brian Portch
CORNWALL
We have a blue tit that comes to our conservatory doors a few times a day he flys up and down and taps on the doors. We thought at first it was looking for insects but I do not think this is so. This has been going on now for a few weeks anyone else had this
Bluetits have nested in my box and already have had a family which have all left the nest. The parents then started taking building material back into the box, but they don’t seem to be around all day but one every night pops back into the box. Can you tell me if this is usual and what are they doing?
I have four platform feeders joined and provide choices for my birds: sunflower hearts