Meet the Animals

Will the sorrow of last years blue tit family be repeated this year, lets hope not!

Species information

The blue tit is our commonest tit and one of our favourite garden visitors, easily recognised by their beautiful blue, yellow, green and white plumage. In flight there is a white bar on the lovely blue wings. It is always entertaining to watch a blue tit showing off its acrobatic skills to get nuts and seeds out of a bird feeder, or even just scrambling around for insects and spiders.

This star performer also produces a lovely trilling 'tsee-tsee-tsee' song and is very clever as well with a reputation for drinking from milk bottles left on the doorstep. According to the British Trust for Ornithology the front of a blue tit's head glows under ultra violet light. As birds see in UV it's thought that this is how females choose a partner.

How to help

Attracting blue tits to your garden couldn't be easier. They readily nest in boxes, read the BTO's National Nest Box Week website to find out more. Also try Breathing Places and the RSPB for more good advice. If you already have blue tits nesting then why not take part in the BTO's Nest Box Challenge for 2009 and help find out more about the breeding patterns of our garden birds.

Blue tits just love to eat hanging from peanut feeders and coconut halves. The RSPB website has a guide to feeding garden birds. As does Breathing Places and the Young Peoples Trust for the Environment.