I’m creating a series of posts, dotted through the month, that capture names, facts and images of different creatures, plants and trees that I have noticed and want to learn more about. I don’t think that you have to be able to name everything you see outside of your door in order to take enjoyment from it. However, for a while now I have wanted to know more about what is around me and I thought I would share it here for anyone else who might want to learn. I also want to increase my art practice and so this is going to give me plenty of subject matter to experiment with in my drawing and painting.
For this first post I’ve chosen the coal tit. I love the tit family of birds - they’re so small and acrobatic, darting around the garden and flitting between the tree branches with their cheerful chirping. We’re fortunate to have plenty of trees and a hedgerow that wraps around two sides of the garden providing a plentiful habitat for these tiny birds. As a result, if you put some time aside to sit very still outside near the trees you get to see them just above your head as they go about their day. The great tits and blue tits are easy to spot - there are plenty of them and they stand out with their blue and yellow feathers. The one bird that I enjoy seeing even more though is the coal tit - perhaps because it is more shy and also because I love the more monochrome colour of its feathers.
The coal tit (Periparus ater) is a tiny bird - 12 cm in length and with a 19cm wingspan and I read on one website that it weighs about the same as a fifty pence coin. They feed on insects and spiders as well as seeds but are shy at the birdfeeders. Every now and again I’ll spot one just for a few seconds amongst the trees as it pecks at something on the branches before darting off elsewhere.
Collective noun: a group of tits are known as a “banditry”.
A coal tit has, to my eyes at least, a very gentle colouring - a grey back with a clear black cap and white stripe on its neck, white cheeks and a buff underneath. It has white wing bars, short legs and a patch of white at the back of its head. To hear its chirp check out Shriek of the Week - a brilliant Substack where you can learn so much about birds and the sounds they make.