Blue Tit

Eurasian Blue Tit – Cyanistes caeruleus

Classification

  • Kingdom: Animalia
  • Class: Aves
  • Order: Passeriformes
  • Family: Paridae
  • Genre: Cyanistes
  • Species: Cyanistes caeruleus

Identification characters

The Eurasian Blue Tit is a small, brightly coloured, friendly, very lively and active, sometimes even aggressive, songbird. It can be seen in winter at feeders in gardens and parks. It can sometimes be seen doing acrobatics, hanging upside down from thin branches in search of nutritious seeds.

Body length is 10-12 cm and it weighs on average 7.5-14.7 g. The sexes are relatively similar, with the male being more brightly coloured than the female. The head is small but rounded in appearance, sometimes appearing to have no neck. The head has a characteristic pattern with a thin black band across the eye, the cheeks are white and the crown is blue. Around the neck it has a black collar, which extends towards the chin. On the ventral side, the plumage is yellowish, with a greyish-black stripe along the abdomen. The wings are bluish, as is the tail.

Juveniles have grey-greenish crests and yellowish cheeks.

The genus name, Cyanistes, comes from the Greek word kyanos – dark blue. The specific epithet, caeruleus, comes from Latin and refers to the same shade of blue.

Distribution

The Eurasian Blue Tit is a widespread species in the western Palearctic. It nests in Europe, the Near East, northern Africa, temperate continental, oceanic and Mediterranean climates. However, it also occurs in boreal areas with lower temperatures. It is found throughout most of Europe, where it nests in more than 75% of the world’s population of 20 000 000 to 44 000 000 pairs.

In Romania it is present throughout the country, including the mountainous area up to the Alpine limit, with a population of between 875 292 and 1 255 047 breeding pairs.

Living environment and biology of the species

In Romania, the Blue Tit is present in different types of habitats, both in lowland areas with deciduous forests, mainly oak (Quercus sp.), but also in mixed forests. It can be seen in orchards, gardens and parks in towns, on roadsides, wherever it finds hollows or nesting cavities. In winter it can also be found in reed-covered fields. Maximum longevity is 14 years and six months. Reaches sexual maturity at the age of one year.

During the nesting period, the diet is predominantly insectivorous, but it also consumes pollen. Hanging upside down on branches, they forage for food, consisting of insects, spiders and other small invertebrates.

In winter it feeds on various seeds and fruits. It visits bird feeders in gardens and parks, consuming seeds, but also does not refuse the fat scraps left by humans. It does not migrate, being a sedentary bird throughout its range, but in cold weather it moves in mixed flocks, along with other species of pipits, to areas with more abundant food. Blue Titmice adapt very easily to new food sources and have the ability to learn new ways of foraging and to learn techniques by imitation. They are able to open the cardboard lids of milk cartons left outside doors to obtain fat-filled feeding foam, a behaviour first observed in great crested titmice (Parus major) in a UK locality.

The Blue Tit is a generally monogamous species. It defends its territory aggressively, often in intense competition with the great spotted woodpecker (Parus major). In the mating ritual, the male glides down towards the female, then ,, dances ,, around the nest with its wings and tail outstretched. Rarely, males may be polygamous, having more than one mate in the same territory. They nest in the hollows of old trees, but may also use artificial nests and sometimes cavities in building walls. The nest site usually remains in the same area from one year to the next. The nest is built by the female in these natural or artificial cavities of moss, hair, feathers and lichen. In April-May, the female lays 7-8 eggs measuring 16 x 12 mm, which she incubates for 14 days, during which time the male feeds her. Not infrequently, very large clutches of 15-18 eggs from several females can be seen. After hatching, the chicks may be fed by a single adult with astonishing frequency, once every 90 seconds. The chicks leave the nest 18-22 days after hatching. A pair generally lays two eggs in a year.

Threats and conservation measures

The Blue Tit is threatened by habitat alteration, fragmentation or loss, poor forest management and pollution.

For conservation, it is recommended to prohibit new urban development, including scattered settlements in forest habitats important to the species, prohibition of deforestation and land use change.

Forestry work should be correlated with the biology of the species to avoid disturbance during the breeding season.

The aim is to reduce the use of insecticides and herbicides in agriculture and forestry, and where necessary and in the absence of alternatives, substances with minimal toxicity and persistence should be applied on the species’ breeding grounds only outside the nesting period.

It is recommended to maintain and increase the extension of native forests, aiming for the highest level of structural and species diversity, maintaining at least 30 trees per hectare for nesting in the forest canopy, maintaining the understory layer in logged forests. It is useful to install artificial nests for great spotted woodpeckers.

It is very important to carry out standardised annual monitoring to determine population trends, to identify breeding, feeding and aggregation areas important for the conservation of the species, and to promote studies on various aspects of the biology of the species.

Bibliography

  • Fântână Ciprian, Kovács Istvan, Benkő Zoltán, Daròczi Szilárd, Domșa Cristian, Veres-Szászka Judit (editors), 2022, Atlas of bird species of community interest in Romania, 2nd edition – Love birds, save nature!, Project financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Large Infrastructure Operational Programme 2014-2020, Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests – Biodiversity Directorate, scientific coordination Romanian Ornithological Society and Association for the Protection of Birds and Nature Milvus Group, produced by EXCLUS PROD SRL, p. 490-491;
  • Lars Svensson, Hakan Delin, 1988, Photographic guide to the birds of Britain and Europe, Passerines p. 254, Chancellor Press, London
  • Svensson (text and maps), 2017, Guide to bird identification. Europe and the Mediterranean area, translation and adaptation in Romanian: Romanian Ornithological Society, Emanuel Ștefan Baltag, Sebastian Bugariu, Alida Barbu, p. 342;
  • Radu Dimitrie, 1983, Small Ornithological Atlas – Birds of the World, Albatros Publishing, Bucharest, p. 211;
  • Jim Flegg (editor), 1994, Birds of the Brithish Isles, Blue and great tits, p. 285-289, printed by Little Brown, Black Cat printers for Bookmart Ltd, Leicester;
  • Ackerman Jenifer, 2018, The genius of birds, trans. from English Cristina Rusu, illus. by John Burgoyne, expert consultant Angela Petrescu, Edit. Publica, Bucharest, p.22-23
  • Aplin et al., 2013, Milk-bottles revisited: social learning and individual variation in the blue-tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), Anim. Behav., 85, p 1225-32,0
  • https://pasaridinromania.sor.ro/ Ornitodata | Eurasian Blue Tit (sor.ro)
  • ( https://pasaridinromania.sor.ro/specii/502/pitigoi-albastru-cyanistes-caeruleus )
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