15 January 2010

The birds called “tits”

In French, tit birds are called « mésanges ». They are probably the most common birds we see around our yard and bird feeders. They eat both seeds and insects, so they enjoy the suet balls — boules de graisse — that we hang on the railing around the terrace in winter.

The particular bird in most of these pictures is, I'm told, called a "blue tit" in English. But it isn't that easy to tell a blue tit — une mésange bleue in French — from the bird called a "great tit" — une mésange charbonnière — unless you see them in full sun. I'm certainly not a specialist, and have no real ambition to be one.

The great tit is larger and has a black "bib" that extends all the way down its yellow breast, according to what I've read. The blue tit is slightly bluer, though the great tit is sort of blue-green on the back and wings. There's also a very similar-looking bird called the "coal tit" — la mésange noire. For such little birds, there is great variety. Now I feel like I'm writing an encyclopedia article...

These might be a great tit (above) and a blue tit (below),
judging from the birds' markings and colors.


The name "great tit" is an oxymoron, from what I've read, because the term "tit" originally meant "small". The great tit is therefore a "big little" bird. And in French, the -ange in mésange doesn't seem to have anything to do with the word "angel" — mésange derives from a hypothetical Frankish (Germanic) word, meisinga, according to the dictionary. In North America, related birds are called "titmice" (in the singular, "titmouse") but the "mouse" in the name has nothing to do with rodents. It's related to the German name for the tit bird, which is Meise. Isn't language a wonderful thing?

One summer we found a tit bird's nest. Usually they nest in holes in trees, but this one had taken up residence inside a concrete block on the ground out under the cherry tree. A heavy square tile was sitting on top of the concrete block, leaving just enough space at one corner for the bird to squeeze in. We moved the tile because we were cleaning up, and there was the mésange sitting in its nest.

We put the tile back and hoped the bird would return. I don't know for sure if it ever did.

8 comments:

  1. Maybe the pics in your bird book don't show the colours and markings very well, but there's no question in my mind that your tits are Great and Blue. Great Tits have black heads and a strong black line down their belly, greenish upper body and yellow lower. Blue Tits have a blue cap with a white border, tonsure style, greenish upper body and yellow lower. Coal Tits have a black cap, grey upper body and buffy lower. Coal and Blues are the same size, Greats are half as big again. I expect you get Coal Tits as well, so eventually you'll see them together on the bird feeder and be able to spot the difference instantly.

    Pic 1 - Great Tit
    Pic 2 - Great Tit above, Blue Tit below
    Pic 3 - Blue Tit
    Pic 4 - Great Tit

    ReplyDelete
  2. PS Nice story about the nest. We used to get them nesting in holes in the brick walls of the outbuildings where we lived in London.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What lovely photos, Ken. They are such delightful little birds.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Jean. Susan, I've revised my post. Now I know more about tits than I ever hoped to know.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Ken, your post today reminded me of the time I found a nest of baby tits under an old flowerpot in a quiet spot in the garden; they sensed my presence through the hole in the top and started calling for food. I was amazed and apalled as I had 2 cats at the time...my husband had to rig up netting all around the pot and eventually we were rewarded by all of them successfully fledging!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was always taught that the great tit could be recognised from its calling: "Teacher! Teacher! Teacher!"

    And tits were also famous in the UK for raiding the milk bottles delivered to people's doorsteps, in the days when these just had a foil cap they could easily peck through.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Those are lovely photos. We have tits here too, but often the "merle" chase them off.

    ReplyDelete
  8. love yr blog, always Ken, and the tits were a delight.

    here's what we have in Petaluma :

    http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/118/_/Bushtit.aspx

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushtit

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/noelzialee/243453095/

    i didn't realize they weren't ubiquitous !

    maxcat

    ReplyDelete

What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?