Great tit - a very mobile bird the size of a sparrow, leading a sedentary lifestyle. Bird is common in mixed and deciduous forests of Europe, Asia and North Africa. This active bright bird can often be found in human habitats: in gardens, parks, forest parks.
Description
The tit is big or big, the Latin name is Parus major, a fairly common bird from the order of passerines. Belongs to the tit family. She is considered the largest representative of the genus in Russia.
When describing the great tit, it should be noted first of all the most noticeable external features. The bird has a bright plumage, different from other birds with a yellow abdomen and a wide black stripe from the breast to the tail of the males, called many ties.
The crown is covered with a kind of black cap, casting a blue metallic glow. On the back of the head is a yellowish-white spot, cheeks are bright white and noticeable. Around the neck there is a black strip, the throat and chest are also black with a bluish tint.
The back has a yellow-green or bluish-gray color of the feather with a shade of olive on the shoulders, and the wings and tail are bluish with a thin white transverse stripe.
In the photo of the great tit, the female is very similar to the male, only the plumage is dimmer, and the black color on the breast and head is more likely to have a dark gray shade. The black collar and strip on the abdomen are much thinner and often interrupted. The undertail is brighter white than the male.
Young chicks are more like females, but their cap is brown or even brownish-olive, and the spot on the back of the head is blurry and much smaller.
In the species of great tit, up to 30 subspecies are distinguished. They differ in the geography of the habitat and are distinguished by shades of coloring of the back, nadhvost, breast, sides, as well as the intensity of the color of the white plumage.
Big tit flying
The flight of this little birdie is an interesting observation. In the sky, a titmouse flies quickly, but at the same time it does not spend extra energy. A flap of the wings occurs only a couple of times when taking off, but then, after climbing, the most interesting begins.
Having gained height, this bird flies down, describing prolonged gentle parabolas, clinging wings to the air flows and tacking in them, does not allow unnecessary flapping of wings, significantly saving energy. In this case, the entire flight takes place at a decent speed.
Voice and trills
The great tit is capable of reproducing up to 40 different trills, despite the fact that the same individual can simultaneously alternate up to five variations that differ in rhythm, pitch, timbre and the number of syllables.
The male, of course, makes sounds much more actively. He is able to sing throughout the year, excluding the period of late autumn and early winter. It should be noted that each bird has its own intonation inherent only to it.
Great tit trouts are very reminiscent of finch singing. However, in the blues they are more sonorous. Most often, these babies use these babies to communicate with their couple, as well as during danger.
In winter, the chants are pretty monotonous: they either whistle softly, sometimes make a roll call, or they will raise a frightened chatter, seeing the danger. At this time of year, Sinichka trills are distinguished by two-syllable singing.
However, at the end of February, when spring has not yet arrived, but its arrival is already palpable and tangible, the big tits become lively, and their songs go on three-syllable trills. With each new week, the bird’s song becomes more diverse, longer, more melodic and louder.
Behavioral Features
Everyone knows that the great tit is notable for its restless, mobile nature, as if it had inserted Energizer batteries at birth. In the fall, these birds gather in small flocks, which are formed from seasonally grown chicks, their parents and several other families, and which number about 50 individuals.
With titmouse, you can often see representatives of completely different species. They calmly relate to such a neighborhood. But surviving winter can be quite difficult, and by the onset of spring, about a third of birds die of hunger and cold.
Great tits are considered the orderlies of the forests. One pair of these birds during the season when they have to feed the chicks saves about 40 trees in the garden from pests.
But during the mating season, the flock is divided into pairs and controls an area of about 50 m². A good-natured sociable tit turns into an evil and aggressive fury while feeding offspring, expelling all competitors from the conquered territory, where it will be easier to grow offspring in the future.
Nesting period
Great tit, mainly monogamous. The pair persists for several years in a row. In season, makes two masonry. The first falls at the end of April - the beginning of May, the second in June. In the first clutch, usually from 5 to 12 eggs, and in the second, a couple of eggs less. The average egg size is 16-20 mm.
The male of the great tit (photo below) during courtship keeps slightly above the female, jumps from branch to branch, wings and tail are slightly fluffy. He often takes off and again goes down to the place where the future nest is supposed, depicting the feeding of a partner. The first mating trills of the male are heard in February.
Only the female arranges the nest, choosing a place for him in the hollow of the tree, at a height of 1.5 to 5 m. If there are no suitable trees, the tit can nest even in an abandoned mouse hole, a crevice in the rock, and other places that the female considers enough secluded.
As stoematerial used moss, thin twigs, animal hair, cotton wool, thread, lichens, spider cocoons. The nest is obtained with a diameter of 40-60 mm and a depth of 40-50 mm. The eggs of the titmouse are white with a shiny shell and a large number of reddish-brown spots and specks.
Hatching chicks
The female sits on the masonry tightly for two weeks. All this time the male feeds her. Freshly hatched chicks are covered in gray fluff; the beak cavity in babies is bright orange. Parents feed offspring together. At the same time, for each chick about 7 g of food per day.
After 16-22 days in the nest, the chicks grow up and begin to fly, but for another week they remain dependent on their parents. And the second brood keeps near parents for up to 50 days, up to the moment when the tits again hatch in flocks in the fall. The life span of a great tit is about 15 years.
