Willow tits are rare birds so I am very fortunate to be able to see them less than 5 miles from here. Marsh tits and willow tits are very difficult to distinguish in the field, except by their calls, but these birds were calling to each other constantly, making identification very easy. They are very engaging little birds and more confident than the blue tits and great tits in the same hedgerow.
When I watch them they usually grab a seed and disappear into the hedge to eat it. They come back for another very frequently so I wonder if they are caching food in the hedgerow as coals tits do. Sometimes they stop and eat the seed in full view.
Willow tits are in severe decline and are on the red list and have more or less disappeared from large parts of the south. Causes for their decline include loss and degradation of habitat, competition from other tits (especially blue tits), and nest predation by great spotted woodpeckers,
They now have this curious distribution across the middle of the UK.
The willow tit is Poecile montanus, montanus meaning of the mountains. I'm not sure where that came from as it doesn't live in mountains. Thomas Bewick didn't include the willow tit in his A History of British Birds (1797) - I think it it wasn't identified as a separate species from marsh tit (Poecile palustris) until 1827. It wasn't recognised in the UK until 70 years later, despite being widespread. Archibald Thorburn painted blue tit, coal tit, great tit, marsh tit and willow tit about 100 years ago.
You can watch a BTO video on how to tell marsh tit from willow tit here (it's not easy if they are quiet). Listen to the willow tit's call on the RPSB website here. Read a review of research into the reasons for the willow tit's decline here. And listen to the BBC Radio 4 Tweet of the Day here.
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