The tit bird is known and loved by many. She is a famous character in folk tales, fables and stories about nature. Titmouse can be found in various forests - deciduous and coniferous, in open areas, edges, along the banks of large and small reservoirs, in parks. Most tits stay at home in winter. Unless, if the winter is too severe, they fly a little south. In Russia, the great tit (or big tit) is the most common. It is the largest and most numerous. About what the titmouse eats in summer and winter, what its habitat and appearance are, read in this article.
Appearance
This bird can be recognized by its conspicuous white cheeks. The head and neck (tie) are painted black. The belly is yellow and the upperparts are blue-black or olive, with slight variations in many subspecies. On the back of the head you can see a white spot with a yellowish tint. Wings and tail - with blue. The bird itself resembles in appearance a brightly colored sparrow (it is not for nothing that it is ranked among the numerous order of passerines). Blue-yellow with black color is far visible in the forest, especially in winter.
The tit has strong legs and tenacious claws, allowing it to hang upside down in search of food in trees. This is a very mobile and fidgety bird. Body weight - up to 20 grams, length - 15 cm, wingspan - up to 25 cm. The name "tit" is supposed to come from the fact that some of the bird's feathers are blue in color.
Habitats
Tits nest mainly in hollows of trees and in the hollows of the trunk, in various niches - natural or made by human hands. Tits live in forests, gardens, groves. In winter, they roam in flocks in search of food, with pleasure settling closer to a person when a cold winter makes them look for food everywhere. What does a titmouse eat in natural conditions? What are her gastronomic preferences? What does this bird like to eat the most?
Diet
The tit mostly eats insects in summer. Most of them belong to the unconditional pests of trees - wild and fruit trees. With its cone-shaped beak, slightly flattened laterally, tits can penetrate various cracks in the bark of trees and shrubs, extracting larvae, pupae, and insect eggs from there. Adults are also eaten. So the question of what titmouse eat in summer can be answered as follows: various insects. This is the great benefit of birds for gardeners: they help to destroy pests. And this little bird eats quite a lot: as much as it weighs itself.
Also, tits sometimes pull out seeds from the cones of coniferous trees with their beaks, they can peck at various fruits.
Feeding chicks
Chickens build their nests indepressions and crevices of old trees, in hollows left by woodpeckers, among snags and stumps. They also do not disdain artificial “titmouses” or suitable shelters in human buildings.
The nest is made of small branches, dry grasses, horsehair, cocoons of spiders and insects, cobwebs. The female lays up to 15 eggs, incubates them for a couple of weeks. The male carries food to the expectant mother 2-3 times per hour.
What does a titmouse eat during incubation (and this happens twice a year, usually in April and June)? Again, larvae and pupae of insects, worms, bugs, dragonflies, butterflies are used. Sometimes - grass seeds or pieces of berries and fruits. After the chicks hatch, their parents feed them intensively, bringing food up to 300 times a day. Feed mainly insects for 20 days.
What does a titmouse eat in winter
All types of tits are great friends of man. They deserve to be taken care of and treated well. Especially in winter, when in order to survive and keep warm in the cold, you need to eat a lot. This is probably why small flocks of tits roam the forest all winter, accompanying woodpeckers. Tit claws are attached to any branch, and, swaying upside down, they carefully examine the cracks and cracks in the bark of trees, depressions and other hidden shelters in the hope of feasting. If you're lucky, numb insects are removed from there. Such useful activity also destroys pests in winter, when many insectivores fly south, to warmth. Also, the advantage of tits is that they extract insects from such shelters that are inaccessible to larger birds (for example, woodpeckers).
What does a titmouse eat in winter? Some species tend to store food in reserve, hiding food in various cracks in the bark, in cracks, hollows. We can say that in winter the diet of birds is wider. For example, she eats hibernating bats.
From the hands of man
What do tits eat in winter? How to feed these friendly and useful birds? First, it is necessary to make feeders for birds living in gardens and parks. Tits with pleasure and often visit them, feed on sunflower seeds, lard (necessarily uns alted), bread crumbs, milk cream. Sometimes nimble birds peek between window panes through the window, where in winter some people store food - lard, butter, cottage cheese - and peck them with pleasure.
