Titmouse is known and loved by many. She is a famous character in folk tales, fables and tales of 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 remain in the homeland in winter. Unless, if the winter is too harsh, fly a little south. In Russia, the most common is great tit (or big tit ). It is the largest and most numerous. Read about what the titmouse eats in summer and winter, what are its habitat and appearance, read in this article.
Appearance
This bird can be recognized by striking white cheeks. The head and neck (tie) are painted black. The abdomen is yellow and the top is 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 in vain 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 titmouse has strong legs and tenacious claws, allowing it to hang upside down in search of food in the trees. This is a very mobile and swivel bird. Body weight - up to 20 grams, length - 15 cm, wingspan - up to 25 cm. The name "tit", as expected, comes from the fact that part of the bird's feathers has a blue color.
Habitat
Titmouse nests mainly in hollows of trees and in hollows of a trunk, in various niches - of a natural nature or made by human hands. Tits live in forests, gardens, groves. In winter, wandering in flocks in search of food, gladly settling closer to a person, when the 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 titmouse mainly eats insects in the summer. Most of them belong to the unconditional pests of trees - wild and fruit. With their conical beak, slightly flattened laterally, the tits can penetrate various cracks in the bark of trees and shrubs, removing larvae, pupae, and insect eggs from there. Adults also go for food. So the question about what the tits eat in the summer can be answered as follows: various insects. This is the great benefit of birds to gardeners: they help to destroy pests. And this little bird eats quite a lot: as much as it weighs itself.
Tits also sometimes with their beaks pull out seeds from cones of conifers and can peck various fruits.
Feeding chicks
Tits build their nests in the hollows and crevices of old trees, in hollows remaining from woodpeckers, among snags and stumps. They don’t disdain artificial “tits” or suitable shelters in man’s buildings.
The nest winds from small branches, dry herbs, horsehair, cocoons of spiders and insects, cobwebs. The female lays up to 15 eggs, hatches them a couple of weeks. The male carries the food of the expectant mother 2-3 times per hour.
What does a titmouse eat during hatching (and this happens twice a year, usually in April and June)? Again, insect larvae and pupae, worms, bugs, dragonflies, and butterflies are used. Sometimes - grass seeds or pieces of berries and fruits. After the chicks hatch, their parents feed them intensely, bringing food up to 300 times a day. They feed mainly insects for 20 days.
What a titmouse eats in winter
All kinds of tits are man’s great friends. They deserve care and good attitude. Especially in winter, when in order to survive and warm in the cold, you need to eat a lot. This is probably why small flocks of tits roam the whole winter in the forest, accompanying woodpeckers. Claws of a tit are attached to any branch, and, swaying upside down, carefully examine cracks and cracks in the bark of trees, indentations and other hidden shelters in the hope of eating. If you are lucky, numb insects are removed from there. Such useful activity also destroys pests in the winter, when many insectivores fly south to heat. Also, the benefits of tits are that they extract insects from shelters that are not available to larger birds (such as woodpeckers).
What does a titmouse eat in winter? Some species tend to procure food in reserve, hiding food in various cracks on the bark, in the cracks, hollows. We can say that in winter the diet of birds is wider. For example, she eats bats hibernated.
From the hands of man
What do tits eat in winter? How to feed these friendly and helpful birds? Firstly, 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 unsalted), bread crumbs, milk cream. Sometimes nimble birds look between the window panes in the window, where some store food in the wintertime - lard, butter, cottage cheese - and they peck with pleasure.