Blue tits 


Cyanistes caeruleus  and often still Parus caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758)

9 sous-espèces

Order: passeriformes  Family: Paridae

Mésange bleue (France), Cinciarella (Italy), Herrerillo común (Spain), Blåmes (Sweden),  Pimpelmees (Netherland), Blaumeise (Germany),  Sinitiainen (Finland).


Size : 11 à 12 cm
Wingspan : 12 à 14 cm
Weight : 9 à 12 g
Longevity: 15 years

Protected species.

Bleue Chenille verte













Numéro 3Piou
















Blue tit is a sedentary species but can be partially migrating on cold winters or storms. In places were usually just a dozen subjects where seen, banding demonstrated that it can be actually traversed by a thousand tits.

Blue tits are mainly woodland birds but adapt well to urban environment.  As for most bird, favorable natural habitats shrink or disappear: vegetable gardens, old orchards, wet meadows, hedges, thickets, waste lands, etc.  Old trees, where they used to find appropriate cavities to nest, disappear. In urban habitat, old buildings are facelifted, cavities in the façades are filled in and big old trees are replaced. Possibly the problem to find a place to nest is more critical than food.

Blue tits feed on small insects, larvae, caterpillars but also of buds, seeds of birch and willow and they do not scorn fruits (the pear is a treat). True acrobat, it clings at the ends of the thinnest branches.

Blue tit is common and the population is stable but has declined in the last 40 years as a consequence of the diminution of their forest habitat, but in spite of the significant number of eggs laid (6 to 12 on average, but generally only one brood per year) the mortality of the young is high. Most of them do not attain 2 years. Of 12 birds there remains only one adult and a youngster the following year. Lack of food, pollution, predators, weather (cold or drought): the dangers are many!


Then any small that your bit of garden or balcony can be, reserve for them a small corner of nature. All the gardens of agglomerations do not lend themselves to the presence of large trees, but all allow the creation of some hedges or maybe there is place for one or more climbing plants favorable to the winged family, for cover and the lodging and to place some nesting boxes. And if in your small universe, you have the chance to have an old tree, with the rough trunk, “full of holes”, preserve it. It will be a first rank collaborator for their insect consomation. 


Distribution:

Habitat

Green: all the year. Yellow: summer.


Short note about english names of paridae:

tit (england), chickadees, or titmice (Noth America).
tit, 1548, "any small animal or object" (as in compound forms such as titmouse, tomtit, etc.); also used of small horses.
Chickadees, from onomatopoeia  "chick-a dee dee dee", allarm call of the bird.
Titmouse,  c.1325, titmose, from titi (expressing something small) + O.E. mase "titmouse," from P.Gmc. *maison (cf. Du. mees, Ger. meise), from adj. *maisa- "little, tiny." Spelling infl. 16c. by unrelated mouse.  from 14th century, from "maison" (maze) and tit "petit".