Coal Tit Identification Guide
What I look like
The Coal Tit has a black head, white cheeks, and a white patch on the nape.
The upper part of the back is dark gray, the wings are gray.
The belly is dirty white to brownish.
It features a black “bib” (a spot under the beak that extends more or less to the chest like a bib).
It is distinguished from the Great Tit by the lack of yellow on the belly and the white patch on the nape.
It is much smaller than the Great Tit.
The female is recognized by her duller and more brownish bib.
In juveniles (young birds that have developed their first full plumage but have not yet reached adult plumage) the black is rather brown. They are more dull.
My songs, my calls
Generally, it is heard before it can be seen, as it is often high up in the branches.
Like other tits, it produces songs and calls with sharp, simple, and repetitive sounds.
Coal Tits communicate with each other through calls, such as a powerful alarm call “sissi-sissi” to warn of a predator's presence.
The song of the Coal Tit is a soft and simple "tsiwi tsiwi tsiwi" or "witseu witseu witseu"
How I behave
It is more difficult to spot because it stays in the high branches of conifers (trees that produce cones like pines, firs, spruces...).
Its long fingers allow it to cling onto clusters of needles and cones.
In winter, the Coal Tit often moves with other tits to find food. (On the left here, a Coal Tit, and on the right, a Marsh Tit)
How I reproduce
It reproduces from March to August.
It can produce 1 to 2 broods per year.
A brood consists of 6 to 10 eggs white speckled with brownish-red.
Its nest is made of a cup of moss, lichen or wool in tree holes and birdhouses.
What I eat
Thanks to its fine beak, it searches for insects, spiders, and seeds in the cones and needles high up in the branches of conifers or in what has fallen to the ground.
It may frequent feeders that are near conifers.
However, it can be scarce at the feeder, for example during years rich in spruce seeds.
Like the Marsh Tits, it is capable of storing seeds.
It stores seeds in high branches of bushy conifers, in empty buds, in the lichen, the needles, and the bark fissures.
Its seeds are safe from other tits that avoid these high spots so exposed to predators.
Coal Tits are the least shy of humans. They may even come to peck seeds from the hand.
Where to find me
It is found in conifer forests (spruce groves, pine groves, and spruce woods).
It is also found in mixed forests, composed of deciduous and conifers.
It can frequent parks and gardens as long as there are conifers.
Well adapted to the cold, it is very present in mountain and in the northern Europe.
The Coal Tit is a sedentary species and sometimes a short-distance migrant.
It is a sedentary bird in Western Europe that spends the winter in our regions.
It may also migrate over short distances in case of lack of food or competition.