Bird of the week - Coal tit

The coal tit (Periparus alter) is the smallest of the three common tits seen in gardens and is much the fastest moving.

Life is tough for small birds such as these at this time of year.  Coal tits spend much of the day searching for food while looking out for danger.  They go around in mixed flocks with blue tits and long-tailed tits as there is safety in numbers. Being small they are low in the pecking order at feeders so they grab a seed and eat it in a nearby bush or tree and they also cache food for harder times.  Energy balance is critical and they will sit on the sunny side of a tree (when the sun is out) and on the leeward side when it is windy.  Read more about small birds' adaptation to winter here.

Coal tits usually pair for life but older males are prone to cheat on their partners and father chicks by other females.  It may be that the females prefer more mature males (seems sensible!) as they may have better genes for longer survival.  See here.

Coal tits are widespread in the British Isles.

Coal tits' preferred habitat is conifer woodland.  This BTO Garden BirdWatch graph shows that they are most likely to be found in gardens at this time of year.

Because they dash to and from the feeders so quickly it is difficult to tell how many there are in the garden but my impression is that I see more now than there were several years ago. The Garden BirdWatch data bear this out.  There are also more of them in gardens in years with smaller conifer seed crops.

Thomas Bewick didn't have much to say about the coal tit in A History of British Birds (1797).  This is his whole entry. He usually wrote at greater length about birds that were good to eat.

Archibald Thorburn painted a coal tit with a great tit.

You can listen to the BBC Radio 4 Tweet of the Day here.  You can watch an old BBC Springwatch video with Bill Oddie and Kate Humble talking about coal tit chicks fledging here.