• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Is this a tit? (UK) (1 Viewer)

lemonskinny

Active member
Hello

I visited Fairburn Ings RSPB reserve in Yorkshire yesterday and saw this bird at the feeding station near the visitor centre.

It had the tit 'look', but when I tried to ID it back home I was unable to find one that has the same white plumage around the eye.

Fairburn Ings info re their tits:

http://ww2.rspb.org.uk/community/placestovisit/fairburnings/b/fairburnings-blog/archive/2018/10/09/marsh-tit-and-recent-sightings-at-fairburn-ings.aspx

Any suggestions would be much appreciated! - Louise
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2210.JPG
    IMG_2210.JPG
    373.4 KB · Views: 182
Possibly a Willow Tit with plumage aberration. WT are regular at Fairburn, not sure of the status of Marsh Tit there? It's one or the other but with the head blurred, hard to say for sure ;)
 
Last edited:
Thanks very much! I had wondered if it could be plumage aberration.

The link I gave is about how they (Fairburn Ings) have recently been visited by a Marsh Tit. The accompanying photo shows it with the full black 'cap'.

I suspect my bird is a Willow Tit, but I have no other pics of it so no way of checking for beak marks.

Thanks again.
 
Thanks very much! I had wondered if it could be plumage aberration.

The link I gave is about how they (Fairburn Ings) have recently been visited by a Marsh Tit. The accompanying photo shows it with the full black 'cap'.

I suspect my bird is a Willow Tit, but I have no other pics of it so no way of checking for beak marks.

Thanks again.

Sorry, should have read the link!

As MT is scarce there I would assume Willow then. Such a distinctive individual is probably known by the locals. Perhaps they have a Twitter feed or sightings page on their website where this bird has been reported before?
 
Hi again

Thanks for your suggestion. I couldn't find anything on the Fairburn Ings website or their twitter page so I emailed them, and they've now replied. It is a regular visitor to the feeders and they suspect it is a leucistic bird.
She didn't correct my assumption that it's a WT so presumably it is!

Louise
 
I thought this might have been a photo challenge thread - Is this a Tit? - and then we all post our best images of people we think might fall into that category! ;)
 
Hi Lemonskinny, Personally I,ve only ever seen mostly pie bold birds like crows or blackbirds (partial leucistic) markings on them I,ve had a almost pure white leucistic house sparrow once apart from one tail feather that is back in the 90,s among a flock of other house sparrows, my friend videoed and photographed a white leucistic blackbird in the same village I live last april apart from it haveing a dark eye it would have been a albino I downloaded both on to here I think, thou I never saw this bird myself.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 6 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top