Blue Tit - the birdbox bird

This small, pretty and agile bird is a common garden visitor in Britain. The blue tit's acrobatic feats, fondness for hanging feeders and propensity to take up residence in bird boxes has made it a firm favourite with the British public.

Smaller than the great tit, the blue tit is also a bird of woodland, parks and gardens. It nests in holes in trees, but is just as happy to use nestboxes. Blue tits are common throughout the whole of the UK, with just a few exceptions. There are no blue tits on the Scottish islands of Orkney or Shetland.

Blue tits are active feeders, hunting out insects and spiders among the smaller branches and leaves of trees in woodlands. But they are also well-adapted to gardens and towns and will visit bird tables and peanut feeders.

Like all birds, Blue Tits can see ultra-violet light: the bright blue feathers on the front of their heads glows brightly under UV light and it is the quality of this feature that is thought to be the deciding factor in the females’ choice of partner.

Back in the era of daily doorstep milk deliveries, blue tits were well known for raiding milk bottles. It was first noticed in Southampton in the late 1920s that the local blue tits had somehow learnt to remove the caps of milk bottles that had been delivered by the milkman each morning. The birds pierced and tore the lid, sometimes removing it completely, then helped themselves to the rich cream that had floated to the top.

Even though blue tits rarely travel farther than a few kilometres from where they’re born, they learned this behaviour from each other by watching their neighbours. Thus, by 1935, the blue tits living in London were regularly stealing cream, too. The behaviour soon radiated outwards and became familiar nationwide to anyone that had milk delivered to their doorsteps. Now that milkmen are uncommon, this behaviour seems to have been forgotten.

The word ‘Tit’ referred to any small object or creature and is of pre-7th century Norse origin.