Blue Tit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Blue Tit
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Aves
Order:
Passeriformes
Family:
Paridae
Genus:
Cyanistes
Species:
C.
caeruleus
Binomial name
Cyanistes
caeruleus
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
Parus caeruleus
The Blue Tit, Cyanistes
caeruleus (often still Parus caeruleus), is a 10.5 to 12 cm long passerine
bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread and common resident breeder
throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and western Asia in deciduous or
mixed woodlands. It is a resident bird, i.e., most birds do not migrate.
The azure blue crown and
dark blue line passing through the eye and encircling the white cheeks to the
chin, give the Blue Tit a very distinctive appearance. The forehead, eyestreak,
and a bar on the wing are also white. The nape, wings and tail are blue; the
back is yellowish green; the under parts mostly sulphur-yellow with a dark line
down the abdomen. The bill is black, the legs bluish grey, and the irides dark
brown. The young are much yellower than the old birds.
This is a common and
popular European garden bird, due to its perky acrobatic performances when
feeding on nuts or suet. It swings beneath the holder, calling tee, tee, tee
or a scolding churr.
The song period lasts
almost all the year round, but is most often heard during February to June.
It will nest in any
suitable hole in a tree, wall, or stump, or an artificial nest box, often
competing with House Sparrows or Great Tits for the site. Few birds more
readily accept the shelter of a nesting box; the same hole is returned to year
after year, and when one pair dies another takes possession.
The bird is a close sitter,
hissing and biting at an intruding finger. When protecting its eggs it raises
its crest, but this is a sign of excitement rather than anger, for it is also
elevated during nuptial display. The nesting material is usually moss, wool,
hair and feathers, and the eggs are laid in April or May. The number in the
clutch is often very large, but seven or eight are normal, and bigger clutches
are usually laid by two or even more hens.
Blue and Great Tits form
mixed winter flocks, and the former are perhaps the better gymnasts in the
slender twigs. A Blue Tit will often ascend a trunk in short jerky hops,
imitating a Treecreeper. As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in
hard weather will shelter in a hole.
The Blue Tit is a valuable
destroyer of pests, though it has not an entirely clean sheet as a beneficial
species. It is fond of young buds of various trees, and may pull them to bits
in the hope of finding insects. No species, however, destroys more coccids and aphids,
the worst foes of many plants. It takes leaf miner grubs and green tortrix
moths. Seeds are eaten, as with all this family.
An interesting example of
culturally transmitted learning in birds was the phenomenon dating from the 1960s
of Blue Tits teaching one another how to open traditional British milk bottles
with foil tops to get at the cream underneath. This behaviour has declined
recently because of the trend toward buying low-fat (skimmed) milk, and the
replacement of doorstep delivery by supermarket purchases of milk.
The Blue Tit has an average
life expectancy of 1.5 years [1]
Taxonomic
notes
Most authorities retain Cyanistes
as a subgenus of Parus, but the American Ornithologists' Union treats Cyanistes
as a distinct genus. This is supported by mtDNA cytochrome b sequence
analysis which suggests that Cyanistes in not only distinct, but not
close to other titmice (Gill et al., 2005).
The two traditional
subspecies found in the Canary Islands (teneriffae) and northwest Africa
from northern Morocco to northern Libya (ultramarinus) are distinctive. The
Canary Islands subspecies has a black cap, and the African form has a blue
back. Research is underway to split these populations into distinct species, with
a peculiar "leapfrog" distribution (Kvist et al., 2005; Kvist,
2006; Sangster, 2006):
- Afrocanarian Blue Tit,
Parus ultramarinus Bonaparte, 1841
(La Palma, Hierro, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, NW Africa)
- Canary Islands Blue Tit, Parus teneriffae Lesson, 1831 (Tenerife, La Gomera, Gran
Canaria)
The former would contain
three or four subspecies (palmensis, ombriosus and ultramarinus/degener),
the latter the nominate subspecies and the unnamed distinct form of Gran
Canaria.
Pleske's Tit (Cyanistes × pleskei)
is a not uncommonly found hybrid between this species and the Azure Tit in
western Russia.
Blue Tit,
(Parus caeruleus) Norwegian: Blåmeis. Photo: Per Harald Olsen
References
- BirdLife International (2004). Parus caeruleus.
2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on
12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is
of least concern
- Gill, Frank B.; Slikas, Beth & Sheldon, Frederick
H. (2005): Phylogeny of titmice (Paridae): II. Species relationships based
on sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene. Auk 122:
121-143. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2005)122[0121:POTPIS]2.0.CO;2 HTML
abstract
- Kvist, Laura (2006): Response to
"Taxonomic status of 'phylogroups' in the Parus teneriffae
complex (Aves)" by George Sangster. Molecular Phylogenetics and
Evolution 38: 290. DOI:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.10.012 (HTML
abstract)
- Kvist, Laura: Broggi, J.; Illera, J.C.;
Koivula, K. (2005): Colonisation and diversification of the blue tits (Parus
caeruleus teneriffae-group) in the Canary Islands. Molecular
Phylogenetics and Evolution 34: 501–511. DOI:10.1016/j.ympev.2004.11.017
(HTML abstract)
- Sangster, George (2006): The taxonomic status of
'phylogroups' in the Parus teneriffae complex (Aves): Comments on
the paper by Kvist et al. (2005). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
38: 288–289. DOI:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.10.009 (HTML abstract)
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Blue_Tit&action=history
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Blue Tit
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Scientific classification |
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Binomial name |
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Synonyms |
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Parus caeruleus |
The Blue Tit, Cyanistes
caeruleus (often still Parus caeruleus), is a 10.5 to 12 cm long passerine
bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread and common resident breeder
throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and western Asia in deciduous or
mixed woodlands. It is a resident bird, i.e., most birds do not migrate.
The azure blue crown and
dark blue line passing through the eye and encircling the white cheeks to the
chin, give the Blue Tit a very distinctive appearance. The forehead, eyestreak,
and a bar on the wing are also white. The nape, wings and tail are blue; the
back is yellowish green; the under parts mostly sulphur-yellow with a dark line
down the abdomen. The bill is black, the legs bluish grey, and the irides dark
brown. The young are much yellower than the old birds.
This is a common and
popular European garden bird, due to its perky acrobatic performances when
feeding on nuts or suet. It swings beneath the holder, calling tee, tee, tee
or a scolding churr.
The song period lasts
almost all the year round, but is most often heard during February to June.
It will nest in any
suitable hole in a tree, wall, or stump, or an artificial nest box, often
competing with House Sparrows or Great Tits for the site. Few birds more
readily accept the shelter of a nesting box; the same hole is returned to year
after year, and when one pair dies another takes possession.
The bird is a close sitter,
hissing and biting at an intruding finger. When protecting its eggs it raises
its crest, but this is a sign of excitement rather than anger, for it is also
elevated during nuptial display. The nesting material is usually moss, wool,
hair and feathers, and the eggs are laid in April or May. The number in the
clutch is often very large, but seven or eight are normal, and bigger clutches
are usually laid by two or even more hens.
Blue and Great Tits form
mixed winter flocks, and the former are perhaps the better gymnasts in the
slender twigs. A Blue Tit will often ascend a trunk in short jerky hops,
imitating a Treecreeper. As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in
hard weather will shelter in a hole.
The Blue Tit is a valuable
destroyer of pests, though it has not an entirely clean sheet as a beneficial
species. It is fond of young buds of various trees, and may pull them to bits
in the hope of finding insects. No species, however, destroys more coccids and aphids,
the worst foes of many plants. It takes leaf miner grubs and green tortrix
moths. Seeds are eaten, as with all this family.
An interesting example of
culturally transmitted learning in birds was the phenomenon dating from the 1960s
of Blue Tits teaching one another how to open traditional British milk bottles
with foil tops to get at the cream underneath. This behaviour has declined
recently because of the trend toward buying low-fat (skimmed) milk, and the
replacement of doorstep delivery by supermarket purchases of milk.
The Blue Tit has an average
life expectancy of 1.5 years [1]
Taxonomic
notes
Most authorities retain Cyanistes
as a subgenus of Parus, but the American Ornithologists' Union treats Cyanistes
as a distinct genus. This is supported by mtDNA cytochrome b sequence
analysis which suggests that Cyanistes in not only distinct, but not
close to other titmice (Gill et al., 2005).
The two traditional
subspecies found in the Canary Islands (teneriffae) and northwest Africa
from northern Morocco to northern Libya (ultramarinus) are distinctive. The
Canary Islands subspecies has a black cap, and the African form has a blue
back. Research is underway to split these populations into distinct species, with
a peculiar "leapfrog" distribution (Kvist et al., 2005; Kvist,
2006; Sangster, 2006):
- Afrocanarian Blue Tit,
Parus ultramarinus Bonaparte, 1841
(La Palma, Hierro, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, NW Africa)
- Canary Islands Blue Tit, Parus teneriffae Lesson, 1831 (Tenerife, La Gomera, Gran
Canaria)
The former would contain
three or four subspecies (palmensis, ombriosus and ultramarinus/degener),
the latter the nominate subspecies and the unnamed distinct form of Gran
Canaria.
Pleske's Tit (Cyanistes × pleskei)
is a not uncommonly found hybrid between this species and the Azure Tit in
western Russia.
Blue Tit,
(Parus caeruleus) Norwegian: Blåmeis. Photo: Per Harald Olsen
References
- BirdLife International (2004). Parus caeruleus.
2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on
12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is
of least concern
- Gill, Frank B.; Slikas, Beth & Sheldon, Frederick
H. (2005): Phylogeny of titmice (Paridae): II. Species relationships based
on sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene. Auk 122:
121-143. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2005)122[0121:POTPIS]2.0.CO;2 HTML
abstract
- Kvist, Laura (2006): Response to
"Taxonomic status of 'phylogroups' in the Parus teneriffae
complex (Aves)" by George Sangster. Molecular Phylogenetics and
Evolution 38: 290. DOI:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.10.012 (HTML
abstract)
- Kvist, Laura: Broggi, J.; Illera, J.C.;
Koivula, K. (2005): Colonisation and diversification of the blue tits (Parus
caeruleus teneriffae-group) in the Canary Islands. Molecular
Phylogenetics and Evolution 34: 501–511. DOI:10.1016/j.ympev.2004.11.017
(HTML abstract)
- Sangster, George (2006): The taxonomic status of
'phylogroups' in the Parus teneriffae complex (Aves): Comments on
the paper by Kvist et al. (2005). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
38: 288–289. DOI:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.10.009 (HTML abstract)
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Blue_Tit&action=history