Even in the city we are surrounded by a fairly large number of birds, and many of them belong to the wild. Gone are the days when only doves and sparrows accompanied city dwellers. Now it is not unusual to see a jay in the park or hear a woodpecker. It has come to the point that at the sight of some feathered townspeople, they begin to think about what kind of animal it is. Even the crested tit, which any villager knows “by sight”, sometimes confuses people, but we are not familiar with it. So let's get acquainted!
Which tits are most common in Russia
To begin with, let's figure out what kind of bird we are talking about. There are very different types of tits, and their names are as follows:
- Great tit. This is the one that most often catches the eye of the townspeople, since life in megacities does not bother her at all.
- Lazorevka. You are unlikely to meet her in the city, because she tends to migrate, and besides, she ignores the city in principle.
- Moskovka. Most likely, you will not even understand that this is a titmouse - there is no blue color in it. Although living in cities is quitefreely.
- Crested Tit. The whole article is about her, so we don’t go deep yet.
- Brown-headed tit. It is also very unlikely to meet her - she avoids "human" places, and even prefers swamps.
- Long-tailed Tit. She loves river coasts, solitude and silence, so those who are not inclined to quiet travel are unlikely to encounter her.
- Remez. It is also a river bird, and besides, it is also a songbird. But river and rather wild is not the kind of character that you can meet in an urban setting.
What does a crested tit look like
This bird is very small, even smaller than a sparrow. The length of her body, even in the largest specimens, does not exceed 14 cm, and the span of both wings is 21 cm. The bird weighs quite a bit - from 9 to 14 grams. The top of this small body is painted in a grayish-brown hue, and the bottom is white, but not clear. There is a black stripe around the neck, the throat has the same color. But the main difference that the crested tit bird boasts (photo below) is an easily recognizable sharp crest, decorated with spots of contrasting (white and black) colors.
Bird habitats
It should be noted that the crested tit traditionally lived only in the European north. Coniferous forests between the middle Volga region and Arkhangelsk, Bashkiria, the east of the Caucasus - this is where she feels comfortable. But in recent years, its habitat has expanded significantly. Now it is also found in other regions - mainlywhere there are conifers. It is interesting that ornithologists and just nature lovers came across the khokhlushka even in Greece and Spain, although they honestly admitted that these were single specimens. This is where the crested tit bird lives (photo below).
Character and habits of the crested tit
It is distinguished by the advantages (or disadvantages - it depends) inherent in all birds of this genus. The Crested Tit is very mobile, bold, cheerful, loves quarrels and fights, while it has great courage and loves to climb. The bird's singing abilities are not great, which often disappoints those who try to tame them, but any dove or peacock can envy the "seduction" postures that the male takes while seducing the female.
The winter habits of the crested tit are also interesting - in the cold, it unites with kinglets, pikas, poison dart flies, Muscovites and travels under the watchful eye of the spotted woodpecker, which greatly increases the chances of survival.
Rescue Bird
The crested tit, along with the Muscovite, is a natural orderly of coniferous forests. Its main advantage is that even in cold weather it primarily looks for hibernating insects and only in their absence agrees to grain feed. By the way, such a diet is very annoying for the bird, since it requires many hours of searching; but until the crested tit is completely starving, it is looking for insect larvae or eggs. This, by the way, can become a problem if you decide to keep such a bird at home - for the most part, it needslive food.
Winter problems
Worst of all feel any tits in winter. And at this time they are not particularly picky - they eat what they come across. Of course, as long as the temperature is not too low, the same crested tit will look for wintering insects, but as soon as it drops to minus 15, it will agree to other food. People who want to help the winged in cold weather should know that, in addition to trivial grains, they can be given to wards in order to support them, but not poison them. The best top dressing will be uns alted bacon, raw sunflower seeds, watermelon and pumpkin. If you bought a coconut for the New Year, its shells will be a gift for tits - you just need to hang them on a rope. Note that tits do not eat bread or traditional millet, so you will feed sparrows and pigeons with them. Sometimes, if there is nothing else, you can offer lean meat or raw bones to tits.
For tits in the cold season, when snow falls and frost strikes, it is necessary to build feeders.
These cheerful representatives of the fauna visit them often and with pleasure, sometimes they even eat food from human hands. Building a bird feeder is quite simple. It is necessary to cut a hole in the side part, wide enough, in an empty five-liter plastic bottle from purified water. We pour titmouse food at the bottom of the feeder (see above what is allowed and not allowed), by the neck we tie the structure to a tree branch growing perpendicular to the ground, at a height of one and a half to two meters. An impromptu table for tits is ready!
Nimblebirds also peek between the window frames, into the window, where quite often people (especially the elderly) store food in the winter: cottage cheese, butter, lard, sausage. And feast with great pleasure!
