Irish Garden Birds - Glamourous Great Tits

So we're in the second week of the 30th annual Irish Garden Bird Survey. There's still plenty of time to take part - see full details here. As well as being a lot of fun, you can help us monitor the status of some of our favourite bird species during the tough winter months.

We'll be doing a series of 'species profile' blogs over the winter to help you learn more about the birds you're seeing in your garden - first up is the Great Tit! 

.......................................................................................................................

Species Profile: Great Tit

As Gaeilge: ‘Meantán Mór’

Irish Garden Bird Survey Ranking 2017/18: 6th place

Conservation status: Green-listed in Ireland and 'secure' at European level.

Great Tit (B Burke)

Did You know?

1. It's possible to seperate the male and female Great Tits based on their plumage. Males have a thick black line down the centre of their belly, that joins between the legs, but it's a thinner and more broken line on females and doesn't join between the legs.
2. Males with thicker black stripes down their breast are more dominant, make better parents and are more attractive to prospective mates. 
3. Great Tits have one of the most recognisable calls of all our garden birds - sounding like the words 'teacher-teacher'.
4. They're the most widespread of the Tit species, found across almost all of Europe, parts of North Africa and as far east as Japan and south to Indonesia too. Across that range there are around 30 different races of Great Tit, with different variations on colours compared to our Great Tit. 
5. Great Tits try and match their nesting activities with the peak period of caterpillar availability. Parents will deliver well over 10,000 caterpillars to their broods in the three weeks it takes for them to fledge. Imagine trying to find 10,000 caterpillars!!! For this reason, birds breeding in natural woodland have more chicks than those using nestboxes in urban areas, because there's more vegetation and more caterpillars in the woodlands. 

Female Great Tit, recognisable by the black stripe tapering off at the bottom. (B Burke)

Male Great Tit, recognisable by the thick black stripe that joins between the legs (M Finn).

How long do they live?

The oldest known Great Tit in Ireland and Britain was a month shy of being 14 years old, but their typical lifespan is around 3 years.

What do they feed on? 

Great Tits prefer to eat insects like caterpillars, butterflies, beetles, flies and other invertebrates such as spiders. They're traditionally associated with broadleaf woodland there the invertebrate life would be abundant! When invertebrates aren’t readily available they'll also eat seeds and fruits from deciduous trees and shrubs.

In winter they'll happily feed on seeds, peanuts and fat balls at bird feeders.

Great Tit with caterpillar (photographer unknown - let me know if its you so I can credit appropriately)

Irish Garden Bird Survey Trends:

Looking at the last 20 years of the garden bird survey, Great Tits have occurred in an average of 93% of gardens each year, giving them an average ranking of 5th place each year (range 4th - 7th place). So they do 'Great' (pun intended) every year, but still a few percent behind their Blue cousins! 

Each garden gets an average of 2 Great Tits and the numbers don't really change much over the winter. We don't really get any Great Tits arriving from other countries, so they're pretty evenly spread throughout much of the country after the breeding season. 

Movements and Migration:

Great Tits from Britain & Ireland caught elsewhere.

https://blx1.bto.org/ring/countyrec/resultsall/rec14640all.htm for full details

Irish Great Tits are more or less sedentary - i.e. they don't leave the country for the winter. The Great Tits you're seeing in your garden this week likely bred or hatched within around 4km of your garden this summer. In years where there's a particularly poor beechmast crop in continental Europe we will get some birds coming here in search of sufficient food. This seems to be happening less and less often however, likely because of the increased provision of food in gardens means those birds struggling for natural food no longer need to leave the country. 

How can I help Great Tits?

Great Tit feeding chicks in nestbox (D Coombes)

Great Tits are originally a woodland and hedgerow bird, and nest in holes in trees and walls where available. This type of nesting habitat can be effectively re-created by nestboxes, and many variations are available. If you want to attract nesting Great Tits, nestboxes with a small hole (28mm) are recommended. You can find designs to build your own nestbox on the BirdWatch Ireland website here, or alternatively we sell a number of different types of nestboxes in our shop that are sure to suit your garden – see our selection here.

When it comes to putting out food for Great Tits in your garden, they really aren’t fussy and will happily eat sunflower seeds, peanuts, fatballs etc – see our full range of bird food on our website here. Great Tits only weight around 18g, so the food in your garden is very valuable to them in the colder weather!

See our selection of bird foods and variety of feeder types at this link, or visit our shop in our Wicklow HQ.

This year we also have the very popular singing Great Tit soft toy! They're soft and cuddly and play a Great Tit call when you squeeze them! A nice stocking filler and a great way to learn this bird's song.  Get them at our shop at the link here, while stocks last. 

Lastly, to help Great Tits and your other garden birds you can become a member of BirdWatch Ireland. Membership makes an ideal Christmas gift – one that keeps on giving throughout the year.

With your membership pack you'll get a free gift, posters of Irish Birds, a Greenland White-fronted Goose pin badge, loads of leaflets on how to attract birds to your garden, and our famous Wings magazine will be delivered to your door four times per year. 

Under 18's and family memberships will also receive our 'Bird Detectives' magazine twice a year, filled with fun and educational activities!

I hope you've learned something new about Great Tits through this species profile - if there's a species you'd like us to cover later in the winter please let us know on facebook or twitter!

And if you're not taking part already, consider taking part in our Garden Bird Survey this winter - and spread the word to friends and family - the more the merrier!