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Is this a juvenile Coal tit? (1 Viewer)

S

Shirley M

Member
I have a bird feeder, and recently got a bridge camera so I could photograph birds from the house without disturbing the birds. I photographed this bird today and thought it was a Coal Tit until I saw it close up via the zoom lens.

What is it? It is small, about the size of a Blue tit. Apologies for the poor quality of the photograph, but I used a long zoom, and then cropped the photo.
 

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No, it's either a Marsh or Willow Tit. The light wing panel immediately suggests Willow, a rapidly declining UK species so a wonderful bird to have coming to your feeders.
 
KenM said:
If you can get any more pics Shirley that would be great.:t:

Cheers
Click to expand...

I'll do my best, but I'm still getting used to the camera. First trial was today. I have shots of Robins, Blue Tits, Great Tits and this little treasure, so far. I'm getting hooked already.
 
PYRTLE said:
No, it's either a Marsh or Willow Tit. The light wing panel immediately suggests Willow ...
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Agreed, although just one part of a suite of potentially overlapping features (1st winter Marsh also have (slightly less obvious) pale edges to secondaries and tertials but light reflection in photos can enhance effect)

As Ken implies, unfortunately confirming ID for certain on this image alone probably, imo, presents an insurmountable challenge but I’m no expert!

There are several known breeding sites in Yorkshire still so every chance your bird is the rarer Willow Tit and the wing panel, bib shape, cap shape and colouring would seem to lean that way.

This may interest you :

https://naturebftb.co.uk/the-projects/willow-tit/
 
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Ok it’s not a great picture but the combination of features e.g. cap, wing panel and structure would be a Willow easily for me:t: The mandible feature of Marsh is not visible but for me it doesn’t need to be. A call might have been useful as a clincher but you can’t have everything.

Worth bearing in mind that the 2 species were only seperated a Century ago iirc.

Good birding -

Laurie:t:
 
KenM said:
If you can get any more pics Shirley that would be great.:t:

Cheers
Click to expand...

I've managed to get more pictures this morning. Top, side and front views.
 

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Looks fairly dusky to the shoulder and flanks, which for me is almost dirty compared to Marsh Tit which to my eye always appears much cleaner looking. Add to that, the absence of the pale proximal spot to the upper mandible, not to mention the pale panel edging to the wing....looks like you’ve got a superb Willow Tit. :t:
 
I'm still experimenting with the camera and editing technique, as the photos are too big to upload. I have been using Paint to resize the photos to a smaller size, but think I'll have another go at cropping as that should reduce the size of the file without losing any quality. I am using a bridge camera roughly 60ft from the feeder. I tried putting the feeder nearer the house but the birds hardly used it, whereas they are queuing up when I put the feeder near the woods that are at the other side of our fence.

Thanks again for all your help. I'm learning so much :)
 
Shirley M said:
I'm still experimenting with the camera and editing technique, as the photos are too big to upload. I have been using Paint to resize the photos to a smaller size, but think I'll have another go at cropping as that should reduce the size of the file without losing any quality. I am using a bridge camera roughly 60ft from the feeder. I tried putting the feeder nearer the house but the birds hardly used it, whereas they are queuing up when I put the feeder near the woods that are at the other side of our fence.

Thanks again for all your help. I'm learning so much :)
Click to expand...

Hi Shirley, to post ID pictures on BirdForum, always crop first (just keep the bird) and than only resize if necessary, otherwise you loose a lot of details
 
Shirley M said:
I'm still experimenting with the camera and editing technique, as the photos are too big to upload. I have been using Paint to resize the photos to a smaller size, but think I'll have another go at cropping as that should reduce the size of the file without losing any quality. I am using a bridge camera roughly 60ft from the feeder. I tried putting the feeder nearer the house but the birds hardly used it, whereas they are queuing up when I put the feeder near the woods that are at the other side of our fence.

Thanks again for all your help. I'm learning so much :)
Click to expand...

Shirley Hi, when I moved into my house 30+ years ago my bird table was at garden end (c20m), then some seven years ago I purchased my first bridge camera and experimented with my feeder stations, eventually moving the feeders within c7’ of the bedroom window. This has paid handsome dividends with the arrival of Redpolls and Siskins some of which carry “bling” (numbered rings) which can be transcribed from the “bridge”. Although they don’t arrive every year especially the former, during good years, my last was 2014, that year I had birds that had been previously controlled in North Wales, Yorkshire, Hants, Norfolk, Kent and amazingly Brussels! Having said all that it took 2 years for the Goldfinches (my first customers) to arrive on the niger. Happy snapping. :t:
 
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