Day 7: Great tit

On fence, next to crab apple Evereste and Clematis tangoutica

I feel like we have seen every season in one day today, with rain, hail, sleet, snow, wind and sun. I will freely admit that I took these photos of this inquisitive great tit yesterday, not wishing to brave the elements with my camera. He did visit again today, though. 

Surprisingly, the great tit is not a consistent, but an occasional, visitor to our garden, despite their repetitive and easily recognisable 'teacher, teacher, teacher' call often being heard and several individuals often visible in the nearby patch of woodland.

Inspecting the sun-yellow flowers of the marsh marigold

This particular individual, who appeared only yesterday, spent a good deal of time in the garden, seemingly inspecting the underside of every leaf he could find. It seems that many people often get the great tit and blue tit confused, but, when seen side by side, there is no competition for size - the great tit is certainly appreciably larger. In fact, it is the UK's largest species of tit. The jet black head is another giveaway as is the thicker black stripe down the centre of the breast. This band is thicker and more prominent in males, which would be my guess at the sex of this individual. 

On the couple of occasions I have been fortunate enough to assist with bird ringing, the great tit has also been much calmer than the blue tit, perhaps due to its larger size. 

References:

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/great-tit/ accessed 29/03/2020