Granddad’s Camera
Blue tit, as it appears in the game

No.003 · Birds · Common

Blue tit

Cyanistes caeruleus

A tiny acrobat with a sky-blue cap, wings and tail. It hangs upside down from feeders and twig-tips, and it is a bird that raises a brood of eight to ten chicks at once.

When to look

All year, mostly at dawn and day.

Time of day

Best time
All day, all year at feeders; busiest in spring when parents feed caterpillars to chicks (April–June).
Where in the game
Millbrook (garden, park, churchyard and urban) and the New Forest (ancient woodland and lawn)
Size
Length about 12 cm
Wingspan
About 18 cm
Weight
About 11 g (BTO adult average)
Lifespan
Average about 3 years; the oldest ringed bird lived nearly 10 years (Wildlife Trusts, BTO)
Population
About 3.4 million territories in the UK (BTO, 2016)
Status
Green (Birds of Conservation Concern 5, 2021)

Diet

Caterpillars and other insects in spring; seeds, peanuts and suet in winter.

Habitat

Woodland, hedgerows, parks and gardens; especially oak woodland.

Breeding

Nests in holes and nest boxes from April; usually 8–10 eggs (average about 9) and normally one brood; the chicks hatch to coincide with the spring caterpillar peak.

Field signs

  • High, thin 'tsee-tsee-tsee-tsi-tsi-tsi' song, and a scolding 'churrr'
  • Bright blue cap, white face with a dark eye-stripe, yellow underparts
  • Small round hole in a tree or box with a ring of dry moss inside

Did you know?

  • Blue tits see ultraviolet light, so the blue crown that looks bright to us glows even more to another blue tit; the crest is used in courtship.
  • In the 1920s blue tits in Southampton learned to peck the foil tops from milk bottles for the cream; the habit spread across Britain.
  • Blue tits time their eggs to hatch when oak caterpillars peak in late spring; a big brood needs thousands of caterpillars, so warm springs that shift the peak can hit breeding success.

Moments worth waiting for

  • Upside-down at the feeder November to March, day
    A blue tit clings upside down to a fat ball, swinging as it pecks.
  • Caterpillar run May to June, day and dawn
    A blue tit arrives at a nest hole with a green caterpillar in its bill, and a chorus of chick calls answers.

Photo tip

Put a perch a few metres from a feeder and photograph the birds using it, rather than the feeder itself. A fast shutter (1/2000 s) freezes the acrobatics.

Be a good naturalist

Clean feeders regularly to prevent disease. Do not open nest boxes during nesting; only the licence-holding ringers and the annual nest-box scheme are allowed to check inside.

The law

All wild birds, their nests and eggs are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; it is an offence to kill, injure or take them or damage an active nest. Nest boxes count as nests while in use.

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