Blue Tit
- Blue tits are common and widespread throughout the British Isles, but are absent from both Orkney and Shetland.
- Though the blue tit’s world range extends to North Africa and Turkey, it is considered a European bird, unlike the far more widespread great tit.
- The blue tit’s favoured habitat is broad-leaved woodland, but is sufficiently adaptable to be abundant in a variety of other habitats, including gardens.
- Some 98% of British gardens report blue tits in winter.
- Blue tit numbers have been increasing in the UK in recent years, possibly helped by the provision of nest boxes and supplementary feeding.
- More than 2.5 million have been ringed in Britain and Ireland.
- British blue tits are strictly resident, seldom moving far from where they hatched.
- Studies have shown that only 1.2% of the population moves more than 20km during the winter.
- In northern Europe this species is a partial migrant, and these birds occasionally arrive on the east and south coast of England.
- Domestic cats are a major cause of mortality, and responsible for 42% of ringing recoveries.
- Starvation kills many young birds soon after fledging. Some 21% of ringed fledglings are found dead within 30 days.
- Though both sexes look similar, the male is considerably brighter than the female, especially in the blue on the head.
- It is thought that as they get older, they get brighter plumage with each subsequent moult.
- No other British tit has blue in its plumage.
- The breeding season varies with location and season, but generally starts in the third week of April.
- Though blue tits will lay repeat clutches if their first is lost, they rarely try and rear two broods.
- The clutch size is highly variable, but usually ranges from 7-13 eggs.
- Clutches as large as 19 eggs, all laid by the same female, have been recorded.
- Clutches tend to be smaller in gardens than those laid in woodland.
- Though the typical nest site is a hole in a tree, blue tits have been recorded nesting in a great variety of situations, from letterboxes to street lamps.
- In summer their principal diet is insects, in winter it is a mixture of seeds and insects, with beech mast particularly important.
