Yeah, yeah, minds out of the gutter! :D From Charly, shots of Parus major. Charly mentions their facility in grabbing sunseeds and whooshing into the trees to crack them open. That’s something I never tire of seeing here, with a relative of the Great Tit, the Black-capped Chickadee. Wonderful shots, click for full size!
© Charly, all rights reserved.
In your case, I knew exactly what to expect. And yeah, they are great. I love tits, and juncos, and other round fluffy winter birds. (Juncos were everywhere in Flagstaff. I saw one recently here in Maryland and was happy to find I correctly identified it. Not much of a birder, me.)
Juncos descend en masse here every winter. The Chickadees are here year round. We don’t have Great Tits here, but there are a number of warblers and chickadees which look a bit like them.
We were feeding birds for a few years now, but this year I got them a nice bird feeder (the one in fourth picture) and since only this year I can finally take pictures, this year I spend more time watching them.
I am enjoying to watch the birds every weekend. So far I noticed a few things that you do not learn in the school:
Each species has its own character and day time schedule.
The birds are pretty racist, refusing to feed along some other species and if they happen to come at the same time, they do not mingle.
The birds of one species do flock together for the winter, but even within flock there seems to be a hierarchy about feeding order (cannot be really observed without marking individual birds though).
Blue tits very small and other species do not mind them much. It seems that most squables are among similarly-sized species or within the flock of the species, but bigger birds mostly do not mind being on the feeder with smaller birds. Very big birds like jays do not mind smaller birds at all.
Caine, as much more experienced observer, what do you think about these points?
Oh, dinosaurs are still dinosaurs. Yes, there’s a lot of hierarchy in various species, there’s always a lot of fighting, and some pretty intense territorialism. These tend to fade out when the weather is extremely harsh, and there’s cooperation all around, because getting food down is paramount. When food is made abundant and the weather warms by even a few degrees, it’s back to the normal squabbling and competition.
The woodpeckers are the most territorial, often spending more time chasing each other off than eating. The sparrows always group together, but a lot of that is protective, they have to worry about hawks, and there’s safety in numbers. When one feels threatened, they all *whoooosh* en masse, then come back the same way. The sparrows don’t care about having finches, juncos, nuthatches, or chickadees joining in. They do not like Bluejays and other large birds disrupting their feed.
Bluejays will eat with one another, but are easily startled. They pay no mind to smaller birds. Eurasian collared doves are mean dinosaurs, and fight constantly, but will eat together in large flocks.
The only kind of tit pics you’re allowed to take and post without getting prior consent.
I must upload those I took last weekend. Also, let’s hope my brother in law manages to find a nice 300mm+ lens for a reasonable price…
Giliell:
Ohhhh, you’ll love it! I don’t know where I’d be without my 70-300mm. I might kill for a 300mm+.
I got a 55-250mm one and while it’s a nice one, it’s lacking when it comes to birds. My BIL is one of those people who are always buying and selling technical gadgets so he knows where to look and whom to ask, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
This post needs more boobies, yah.
The third is kind of a bulldog posture.
Also, in the last one, the way the bird is gripping the branch and looking to the side is a great catch.
These are wonderful, Charly! A lot of big character in large bits of fluff. :)
I miss sitting in the park and watching these when I lived in Germany. They were particularly entertaining to watch when the older folks showed up to feed the ducks and geese around the lakes. The tits were often really fast to grab a treat and run (fly) for the trees.