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Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)

Effervescent and bold, the Blue Tit punches above its weight. When competing with the much larger Great Tit over food at a bird table or other source, it is not bullied into submission, and the two species are well matched. In spring, though, when the birds compete for nest sites, the Great Tit usually wins out, relegating the Blue Tit to less desirable sites.

The Blue Tit is an exceedingly common bird over almost all of Europe, excluding the far north and Iceland. It very much prefers deciduous woodland and forest to any other habitat, but it is adaptable enough to thrive in gardens, shrubbery and other sites with fewer trees. It is highly acrobatic, moving from a perched to a hanging position with considerable ease, and effortlessly reaching to the very tips of branches. As far as the tit family goes, the Blue Tit is the dominant species of the broad-leaved canopy.

Blue Tit finding use for telescope, Surrey, December 2012 (Dominic Couzens)

Blue Tit finding use for telescope, Surrey, December 2012 (Dominic Couzens)

In the winter, Blue Tits usually go about in mixed species flocks; indeed, groups of this species often form the nucleus of such aggregations. Ringing studies have shown that the constituent Blue Tits come from two different social backgrounds: some are residents, moving around with the flock close to their territory or birthplace; others are nomads, moving from area to area and enjoying only temporary membership of any flock. At bird-tables and other concentrated food sources, flock behaviour tends to break down.

From early spring Blue Tits begin to sing and pair up. Perhaps surprisingly for such a small bird, individuals that can tend to re-form relationships from the previous year. There are many different songs, but the most typical and recognisable is a long drawn-out trill preceded by a couple of shorter notes. A common display added later in the season is a brief whirring display flight, terminating close to a potential nest site.

Blue Tits lay a lot of eggs. In woodland the average clutch size is 11 and can be as much as 18, which is a high as for any small bird in the world.