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.