Great Tit
The Great Tit is the biggest, brightest and nosiest member of the Tit family.
Characteristics
Great Tits are easy to recognise, with a broad black line (broader in the male) down its otherwise yellow front. The neck and head are black with white cheeks and ear coverts. Upper parts are olive. It has a white wing-bar and outer tail feathers. In young birds the black is replaced by brown, and the white by yellow.
Habitat
Their preferred habitat is forest, parks, gardens and farmland hedgerows. The Great Tits nest is usually in a tree or wall but it is not averse to a nest box, letterbox or drainpipe.
Behaviour
The Great Tit is a vocal bird, it has a vast variety of distinct calls (in the region of eighty different calls), and some of them uncomfortably shrill to the human ear. The most familiar call is a “teacher, teacher”, also likened to a squeaky wheelbarrow wheel.
The Great Tit is extremely adept at finding ways to reach food and they are primarily insectivores. They prefer protein rich caterpillars during breeding season to feed their young. A study published in 2007 found that Great Tits helped to reduce caterpillar damage in apple orchards by fifty percent.
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