Great Tit - Parus Major

Foto van Madelèn Essens

Juvenile

Peanuts are tasting well
Photo: Madelèn Essens

Description:

Is the greatest of our tits, about 14 centimetre and 20 gram. The Great Tit can be recognised by the yellow belly, cut through with a black tie, the black head, the green back. Adults have white cheeks, but those of the juveniles are yellow. The tie of the male bird is wider and darker than the tie of the female bird.

Biotope:

Broodbird of places with bushes: parks. gardens, orchards and spread bushes in the open fields. The great Tit prefers deciduous forests over conifer forests.

Sound:

Foto van Teun Veldman

Male left and female right
Photo: Teun Veldman

Feeding:

The food is varied, this means in the summer insects and if there is less food, also vegetable food (oil-bearing seeds, beechnuts, berries and hazelnuts). They can be helped in the winter by feeding saltless bacon, peanutcoils and sowseed for birds.

Nest:

The Great Tit likes to use normal birdhouses, but also 'strange places' for a nest, like letterboxes or unused rainpipes. The Great Tit broods from end of March till the end of June. The average brood consists of 8 till 10 eggs. Breading season: 13 till 14 days. The young tits get 30 till 70 times a day a portion food. If they are 18 days old and are able to fly, they leave the birdhouse. The Great Tit mostly has one brood a year.

Geographical distribution:

Green area: annual bird

The Great Tit is found in entire Europe, except in the far north. Is everywhere very numerous, however the population fluctuates. The mortality rate is high, 87% of the Great Tits die before they are one year old.

Names:

• Danish Musvit
• English Great Tit
• French Mésange charbonnière
• Fries Blokfink
• German Kohlmeise
• Hungarian Szèncinege
• Italian Cinciallegra
• Latin Parus major
• Nowegian Kjøttmeis
• Polish Sikora Bogatka
• Zwedish Talgoxe

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