Great Tit

Great Tit- Parus major

Classification

  • Kingdom: Animalia
  • Class: Aves
  • Order: Passeriformes
  • Family: Paridae
  • Genre: Parus
  • Species: Parus major 

Identification characters

The Great Tit is certainly the best-known of the woodpecker species.

The Great Tit nests in natural or artificial burrows. In winter they can often be seen at feeders in towns and parks, eating sunflower seeds, walnut kernels, fat and apples.

The genus name – Parus – comes from the Latin name of the pygmy. The specific epithet comes from the Latin word maior which means larger, being the largest of the pygmy birds, with a body length of 13-15 cm. It weighs, on average, 11.9-22.1 g.

The head is glossy black with large white spots on the cheeks. On the ventral side, the plumage is yellow with a black median stripe and the dorsal side is dark greenish. There is a white band on the bluish-grey wing.

The sexes are relatively similar, with the male more intensely yellow ventrally and with the black midrib band wider, while the female is less intensely yellowish, with the black band narrower and often broken.

Juveniles are similar to adults, but are distinguished by a yellowish cheek patch with an incomplete black lower margin.

The Great Tit can often be heard and recognised by experienced individuals by a characteristic repeated trisyllabic sound, but is capable of more than 40 different types of songs and signals.

Distribution

The Great Tit is a widespread species throughout Europe, West Asia and Northwest Africa in temperate areas with a temperate continental, oceanic or Mediterranean climate. In Asia it can also be found in tropical areas. In Europe, the population is between 65 100 000 and 106 000 000 breeding pairs, representing 30% of the world population.

In Romania it is present almost everywhere, from the Danube Delta to the mountainous areas, except in the high mountains and the Alpine void.

The breeding population in Romania ranges from 4 812 726 to 5 698 871 pairs.

Living environment and biology of the species

The Great Tit is found on the plains, in hilly areas, but also occurs in the mountains. In some regions it can reach altitudes of 1 850-1 900 m. In Romania, the great spotted woodpecker is present in different types of habitats, being the least demanding of the species. It can be seen in deciduous, mixed or coniferous forests, but also in gardens, orchards or parks within localities, wherever it finds suitable nesting hollows or hollows. It is a sedentary species. Outside the nesting season it moves in search of areas with more abundant food, together with other species of pipit, from which it differs by its larger size. Maximum longevity is 15 years and four months. It reaches sexual maturity at the age of one year.

During nesting it forages for eggs, adults and insect larvae, but also consumes plant food such as catkins or buds. The young are fed mainly on caterpillars, which are very valuable during the growing season. In winter, the diet consists mainly of oilseeds and dried fruit. It is a common visitor to bird feeders. Unlike other species of pipit, having a large waist, this pipit can be seen feeding for a longer period of time on the ground than other pipit species. Large pygmy ducks adapt very easily to new food sources, have the ability to learn new ways of foraging and to learn techniques by imitation. In 1921, the first sighting of great tit titmice opening the cardboard lids of milk cartons left outside doors to obtain fat-filled feeding foam was made in a town in Britain, and this behaviour was subsequently seen in hundreds of towns in England, Wales and Ireland.

Great Tit nests can be preyed upon by woodpeckers, but the main predator is the weasel (Mustela nivalis), which can easily squeeze through the nest hole, and baby woodpeckers are a popular food for this mammal.

During the breeding season, the Great Tit behaves as a monogamous species. The male is very noisy, especially during the mating ritual, when he becomes territorial and sings to attract a mate. The breeding season begins in April and lasts until June. It nests in hollows, but does not avoid artificial nests, post boxes, flower pots or even metal pipes. The female builds the nest from moss, grass clippings, leaves, feathers, wool and animal fur hair. In a breeding season, starting in April-March, a pair lays two eggs. Each clutch consists of 3-18, most often 9 white, rusty-spotted, matted eggs. The female broods for 13-14 days, during which time the male feeds her. The chicks become able to leave the nest after 20-22 days, but both parents protect and feed them until they are 40 days old.

Threats and conservation measures

The Great 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. 486-487;
  • 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 into 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;
  • Fisher J.B., Hinde R.A., 1949- The opening of milk bottles by birds, Br. Birds, 42, 1949, pp. 347-57;
  • 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.
  • https://pasaridinromania.sor.ro/ https://pasaridinromania.sor.ro/specii/503/pitigoi-mare-parus-major/  Ornitodata | Great Tit (sor.ro)
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