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How to tell a blue tit from great tits, coal tits and the rest of Britain’s tit population

Stephen Moss Stephen Moss

Ornithologist and author Stephen Moss on the tits of Britain, from the blue tit and great tit to the crested tit and coal tit — plus the pair of 'tits' that aren't really tits at all.

There are six species of ‘true tits’, of the family Paridae, in Britain. There are two other, unrelated species which share the name: the long-tailed tit and bearded tit (or reedling).

Blue tit

Ornithologist and author Stephen Moss on the tits of Britain, from the blue tit and great tit to the crested tit and coal tit — plus the pair of ‘tits’ that aren’t really tits at all.

Numbering about 3.2 to 3.4 million pairs, blue tits come in at number eight in the league table of the most common British breeding birds. A hard winter can reduce the population, but they usually bounce back within a year or two and can be seen across most of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, albeit not on most offshore islands or in upland areas.

They’re small, but blue tits often give as good as they get and certainly dominate the other, similar-sized, species.

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Great tit

A Great Tit [Parus major] in Swindon, Wiltshire.

Great tits also have white cheeks, but have a black head and thick black line down their yellow breast. It often visits gardens. The largest of the six (they’re close to the size of a house sparrow), great tits tend to dominate the pecking order on feeders.

Coal tit

A Scottish coal tit in flight.

Coal tits are, as their name suggests, brown, black and buff, with a white nape. Like the great tit, often visits gardens.

Marsh tit

The Marsh Tit (Poecile palustris).

More monochrome than blue tits and great tits, and harder to spot: they are very rare visitors to gardens. Mainly brown with a shiny black cap and ‘bib’ beneath the beak, and a pale belly. Very, very similar in appearance to the willow tit (see below), with the RSPB noting that the two were considered the same species until 1897. The marsh tit usually has a white mark on its bill, and a glossy black cap.

Willow tit

Willow Tit (Poecile Montanus)

Like the marsh tit, much less colourful than other tits, and equally elusive: you’d be very lucky to see one in your garden. You’d be even luckier to be able to tell the difference between this and the marsh tit. Note the lighter patch on the wing, however: the RSPB notes that this pale panel is not found in marsh tits.

Crested tit

Crested Tit (Lophophanes cristatus) in Scotland.

It’s a relief after poring over pictures of the marsh and willow tits to find a bird so distinctive: the crested tit is the punk rocker of the tit world, with a mohican to be proud of. Sadly, you’re unlikely to spot one: within the UK, they are generally found only in the Highland forests of Scotland.

Long-tailed tit

Long-tailed tit.

Another distinctive bird, the long-tailed tit has unmistakable colouring — in particular its badger-style head stripes — and a tail longer than its body. There are almost 400,000 living in Britain, spread across the whole country in woodland, farmland hedgerows, scrubland, parkland and gardens.

Bearded tit (or reedling)

A bearded tit (Panurus biarmicus)

Found almost exclusively in reed beds — particularly on the south and east coasts of England — these brightly coloured, long-tailed birds are striking and noisy. In fact you’ll probably hear them before you see them, with their distinctive ‘ping’ calls.