looduskalender.ee

The differences between the tail of a great tit and a 

greenfinch show up nicely in the picture above.

 

The great tits with their small beaks cannot manage very well in the forest In winter and so they gather in cities and communities. For the night they find a balcony corner, a woodpile in villages with fireplaces, nestboxes - a thousand places to find shelter and be closer to food too. And it is no small advantage that cities are a a few  degrees warmer in winter.

 

In the morning dusk the first visitor to the birdfeeder will be an older male bird who has spent the night nearby. Sometimes the bird is only heard in the darkness. Great tits don’t store food for themselves, but they are clever at finding seeds hidden by other tits in bark crevices. A great tit will always manage!

 

Photos: Arne Ader

 

Great tits are very similar, can we see differences between them?

 

Adult male birds can be distinguished by the broader black band on their bellies; their behaviour in the birdfeeder is bossy. The belly band of female birds and young birds with not yet fully developed plumage is quite clearly narrower and more uneven, but this should not be taken as an absolute rule.

 

A great tit weighs up to about twenty grams and their winter number is more than half a million individuals. In milder winters many more birds may stay in Estonia for the winter; this year’s Winter garden bird count will provide a more precise view.

 

In Arne’s garden forty – fifty great tits are staying. When they are there they are busy at the bird feeder according to „rank“; in between they check what happens elsewhere in Otepää or what better delicacies might be offered in other places. They move around in groups with  the individual birds keeping a reasonable distance to each other – otherwise quarrels tend to break out.

 

In the next few months a number of changes will occur in the behaviour of great tits. We will try to tell you about it.