Marsh/Willow or Coal tit? Staffs, UK (4 Viewers)

[Andy Adcock]

Both are becoming increasingly rare in the UK - for this reason alone it is not very usual for them to be in the same area. However, where both still occur, they can attend the same feeders.

I live outside the UK and in an area where both are common - I have two feeding stations. At the first (basically gardens) I only get Marsh Tits regularly, with Willow Tit just very occasionally in winter. At the second though (flood forest), Marsh Tit is still the more common, but Willow Tit relatively common, more so in some years. Last winter, there were 27 Marsh Tits and eight Willow Tits at my feeders in total, both often present at the same time. Currently, in this very early winter period, I have six Marsh Tits at my feeders and five Willow Tits.

We have one Willow Tit attending at the moment which is unusual. We often have them in the surrounding Birch but they rarely if ever, use our balcony feeder.

We have a Jay at the moment as well, they don't usually come to our feeder, possibly due to the style of the feeder more than anything else but it made me wonder if it's been a bad year for Acorns?

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[Andy Adcock]

I assume it's the same bird although as the pics were taken a few days apart it might be a different one. It behaves in the same way but it is entirely possible it's a new bird. Would it be usual for Marsh and Willow tits to be in the same area? You might be right about it being food in the first pic, it doesn't seem to eat at the feeder and prefers to make very short but repeated visits and take seed away with it. The other tits seem to spend longer at the feeder on each visit.

Many of out Tits like to do this, they take a seed then retreat to the forest to eat it but the forest is only a few metres away.

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[Jos Stratford]

We have a Jay at the moment as well, they don't usually come to our feeder, possibly due to the style of the feeder more than anything else but it made me wonder if it's been a bad year for Acorns?

I usually get 10-20 Jays at my feeders, both garden and flood forest - they are adept at using any of the feeders I use, even the standard peanut feeders where they hang on just like overgrown Blue Tits.

At a wider level, I have had a very moderate autumn passage of Jays this year, far far less notable than in many years - for this reason, I suppose that there is no serious issue with food crops further north. I would guess, if your feeders are on a balcony, the past lack of Jays is perhaps due to a reluctance to come to the balcony rather than inability to use the feeders.

I do get Jays even on a feeder against the kitchen window, so maybe one of yours has overcome this general reluctance this year?

 

[Andy Adcock]

I usually get 10-20 Jays at my feeders, both garden and flood forest - they are adept at using any of the feeders I use, even the standard peanut feeders where they hang on just like overgrown Blue Tits.

At a wider level, I have had a very moderate autumn passage of Jays this year, far far less notable than in many years - for this reason, I suppose that there is no serious issue with food crops further north. I would guess, if your feeders are on a balcony, the past lack of Jays is perhaps due to a reluctance to come to the balcony rather than inability to use the feeders.

I do get Jays even on a feeder against the kitchen window, so maybe one of yours has overcome this general reluctance this year?

Probably true but from day one, GS Woodpeckers came and Jays are extremely common here so I'd have expected the same? We've even had Hawfinch before Jay.

Birds are odd here in terms of what should be common but isn't, we don't see Coal Tits, only ever seen one here and Crested Tits are almost as uncommon?


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[Jos Stratford]

Birds are odd here in terms of what should be common but isn't, we don't see Coal Tits, only ever seen one here and Crested Tits are almost as uncommon?

Here at least, I think the issue with Crested Tits is that they do not move very much at all, quite possibly even a couple of hundred metres from occupied habitat being enough - I get them daily at my garden feeders (garden immediately abuts pines), but have never had them at my flood forest feeders despite them occurring in pines just 300 or so metres away - there is no open country to stop them, but they just never seem to enter the deciduous trees here. More, many of the roving tit flocks that do use my feeders go back and fro to these pines and end up in mixed flocks with Crested Tits ...I wait on a daily basis for them to drag one of the Cresties back to my feeders ...but I have been waiting on a daily basis for ten years!

I usually only get Coal Tits at the feeders in influx years, local birds also don't seem to shift out of the pines.