Great Tit (parus major)

The great tit is found all over Britain throughout the year. The name tit comes from an old word from Iceland: tittr, which means small. All of the tit family of birds are quite small. The great tit is the biggest tit (14cm) and can sometimes bully the other tits in the garden.

The adult bird has a black and white head and yellow belly with a black stripe down the middle. The colour of the females is a bit duller.

Like the other tits, they like to hang from trees and bird feeders to feed. They eat seeds, berries, spring buds, insects and scraps.

The nest is made in a hole in a tree and up to 12 eggs are laid one a day like the blue tit. Their favourite songs sound like ‘tee-cher, tee-cher, tee-cher’ and ‘pee-too, pee-too, pee-too’.