Coal Tit
Periparus ater
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The smallest of our tits — grabs a seed and vanishes, hiding it somewhere for later.
A small, neat, subdued tit: black cap and bib, white cheeks, and a distinctive white stripe running down the back of the head that separates it from every other garden tit. The body is buff and grey rather than yellow and blue. Coal tits are strongly associated with conifers, so they are numerous in the plantations and shelterbelts around Dumfries and visit garden feeders nearby, especially in winter.
Behaviour
Coal tits rarely linger at a feeder. They dart in, take a single seed and fly off to eat or cache it — tucking food into bark crevices, moss and conifer needles to retrieve during hard weather. This hoarding lets them survive winters that would otherwise be too lean. Their song is a fast, high, repeated 'see-too see-too', thinner and quicker than a great tit's.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Tits (Paridae)
- Size
- 11.5 cm · smaller than a blue tit
- UK status
- Green-listed
Photo by Alexis Lours, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons