sign in sign up
<<
Home , Coal tit

Focus: Coal

Main picture: adult . Insert: juvenile Coal Tit – note the pale lemon yellow cheeks, the colour extending down onto the breast. Both images by Steve Round (stevenround-birdphotography.com)

Smaller than a Blue Tit, and also more agile, Tit bills are even larger. Small differences in the rather delicate Coal Tit is an often bill size between individuals using different overlooked visitor to garden feeding stations. may seem inconsequential. Its small size places the Coal Tit low down However, it is known that even very in the pecking order and this may be one small differences in bill size can have a of the reasons why Coal Tits are regularly competitive advantage. seen to take food from hanging feeders to eat or store elsewhere – they simply cannot THE IMPORTANCE OF SEED defend a feeding perch against the other If you look at your Garden BirdWatch records more dominant . going back over a number of winters you The winter peak in might find that the number of Coal Tits garden use not has EVERGREEN LEANINGS using your garden varies from one year to great when there Coal Tits can be very common in coniferous the next. This pattern is particularly evident has been a good woodland and certainly make greater use of when we examine the wider set of Garden crop of conifer seed this than our other tit species. The BirdWatch records; there are some years (arrowed). small size and agile nature allow the Coal Tit where the use of gardens is much lower

t to glean food from between pine needles than in others (see graph, left). with its narrow bill. An analysis of your records in 2007 by British Coal Tits use Ailsa McKenzie, revealed that the use of broadleaf woodland your garden feeding stations by Coal Tits to a greater extent was related to the size of the Sitka Spruce than their continental seed crop in British . In those years cousins and, as a when the seed crop was good, there was a consequence, have decline in the use of gardens, but in those slightly larger bills. In years when the seed crop was poor, Coal , where there Tits increased their use of our gardens. This Proportion of gardens visited are fewer , Coal pattern was also seen in Siskin.

Year

18 Table Spring 2011 SELF-STORAGE Watch Coal Tits visiting your feeding station in the season, something that may and you may well see one taking food away also contribute to their success. Long- to store elsewhere, making regular sallies term monitoring of Coal Tit populations back and forth over a short period of time. through the BTO’s Common Census This behaviour, known as food caching, is and the BTO/RSPB/JNCC Breeding seen in a number of different bird species Bird Survey, which has (think of Jays with acorns or Nuthatches since replaced it as our with sunflower seeds) and it is used as a main monitoring tool, buffer against future food shortages. has highlighted a remarkable period of Coal Tits tend to scatter hoard, in that stability stretching back to the mid-1970s. they don’t place all of their hoard in the This followed an earlier period of rapid same place, preferring instead to place population expansion, thought to have been each food item separately. The question of triggered by the opportunities afforded by just how good or bad their memory may be thousands of acres of maturing plantation

Coal Tit by Steve Round (stevenround-birdphotography.com) Steve Tit by Coal is answered, in part, by the appearance of forestry across much of Britain & Ireland. sunflower plants in flower borders where The Coal Tit remains a welcome visitor they had not been sown by the gardener! to garden feeding stations, perhaps in part Seeds form an important component because it is less common than its larger of the diet during autumn and winter, the and more obvious cousins. Look out for this lack of favoured invertebrates forcing the black-capped tit, with its distinctive white Coal Tit to switch its attentions to what rectangular panel which runs up the back is available. Even so, they will take any of the head (a feature not shared by any hibernating insects that they can find, other European tit). sometimes even from the undersides of conifer branches heavy with snow. The combination of hoarding, the switch to tree FACTBOX: Coal Tit ater seeds and the agility of this small bird, may explain why it seems to cope with cold Population: winters more successfully than Breeding: 600,000 pairs other small species. Winter: unknown, but resident SQUEEZED OUT population swelled by young and Even if you have Coal Tits visiting some immigrants. your garden throughout the year, you may be hard pushed to Conservation status: get them to use a hole-fronted GREEN (favourable) nest box. This is because they are readily ousted by the larger and socially dominant Blue Diet: and Great Tits which are also Insects and spiders; also seeds looking for cavities in which to in winter. Mostly taken nest. You can, however, improve from outer branches of conifers. your chances by using a nest box with a small entrance hole Longevity: (c. 25 mm diameter). You could also try using a box with a Typical lifespan: 2 years narrow vertical slit, rather than Max recorded lifespan: 18 years 9 months, 26 days a round hole. The nest itself is built by Breeding Ecology: the female, the male continuing to defend his territory and Clutch size: 9–10 Number of broods: 1–2 only getting more involved Incubation: 14–16 days once there are young chicks to feed. Unlike Blue and Great Young in nest: 16–19 days Tits, Coal Tits are more likely Age at first breeding:1 year to have a second brood later Coal Tit by Mark Hancox (www.markhancoxbirdphotography.co.uk) Tit by Coal www.bto.org/birdfacts Spring 2011 Bird Table 19