Crested titmouse: description and features

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 pigeons and sparrows accompanied city dwellers. Now it's not out of the ordinary to see a jay in the park or hear a woodpecker. It got to the point that at the sight of some feathered townspeople begin to think about what kind of beast it is. At times, even a crested tit, which any villager knows in the face, even poses a dead end to people , and she does not know us. So let's get acquainted!

What tits are most common in Russia

First, let's see what kind of bird we are talking about. There are very different types of tits, and their names are:

1. Great Tit. This is the one that most often comes to the eyes of the townspeople, since life in metropolitan areas does not bother her at all.
2. Blue tit. You are unlikely to meet her in the city, as she is in the habit of migrating, and besides ignoring the city in principle.
3. Moscow. Most likely, you will not even understand that it is a tit - there is no blue color in it. Although living in cities is quite free.
4. Crested tit. About her - the whole article, so do not delve.
5. Brown nuts haychka. To meet her is also very low probability - she avoids the "human" places, and prefers marshes as well.
6. Long-tailed tit. He likes river coasts, solitude and silence, so those who are not prone to quiet travel, are unlikely to encounter it.
7. Remez. It's also a river bird, and also a chorister. But the river and rather wild is not the character with which you can meet in urban conditions.

How does a tiwn turtled look like

This bird is very small, even less 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 21st. The bird weighs a bit - from 9 to 14 grams. The top of this small body is painted in a greyish-brown hue, and the bottom is white, but not clean. Around the neck there is a black streak, the same color has a throat. But the main difference, which the tussock tits can boast (photo below), is an easily recognizable sharp crest adorned with specks of contrasting (white and black) flowers.

Habitat of the bird

It should be noted that the crested tit was traditionally inhabited only in the European north. Coniferous forests between the middle Volga and Arkhangelsk, Bashkiria, the east of the Caucasus - that's where she feels comfortable. But in recent years, the range of its habitat has significantly expanded. Now it is found in other regions - mainly where there are conifers. It is interesting that hohlushka came across ornithologists and simply nature lovers, even in Greece and Spain, although they honestly admitted that they were single specimens. This is where the bird lives, the crested tit (photo below).

Character and habits of the crested titmouse

It has advantages (or drawbacks - this is how to look), inherent in all birds of this genus. The crested titmouse is very mobile, bold, cheerful, loves quarrels and fights, while having great courage and very fond of climbing. The singing abilities of birds are small, which often disappoints those who try to tame them, but the poses of "seduction", which the male takes during the ohmureniya female, can envy any dove or peacock.

The winter habits of the crested tit are also interesting. In the cold, it combines with the kings, pikers, dwarfs, moscow and travels under the watchful eye of the motley woodpecker, which greatly increases the chances of survival.

Bird-rescuer

The crested tit, along with Moscow, is the natural medic of coniferous forests. Its main advantage is that even in cold weather it primarily looks for wintering insects and only in their absence agrees to grain forage. Incidentally, such a diet is very annoying bird, because it requires many hours of searching; But while the crested tit does not get hungry at all, she is looking for larvae or eggs for insects. This, by the way, can be a problem if you decide to keep such a bird at home - it needs for the most part live food.

Winter problems

Worst of all feel any tits in the winter. And at this time they are not particularly choosy - they eat what they see. Of course, while the temperature is not too low, the same crested titmouse will look for wintering insects, but as soon as it sinks to minus 15, it will agree to another food. People who want to help winged in frost, should know that, in addition to trivial seeds, you can give wards to support them, but do not poison. The best feeding will be unsalted fat, raw sunflower seeds, watermelon and pumpkin. If you bought a coconut for the New Year, its shells will become a gift for tits - they simply hang it on a rope. Take into account that bread or traditional millet of titmouse is not eaten, so you will feed them sparrows and pigeons. Sometimes, if there is nothing else, you can offer lemon to lean meat or raw bones.

For tits in the cold season, when snow falls and hits frost, it is necessary to build feeders.

These cheerful fauna representatives often and with pleasure visit them, sometimes eat food even from the hands of a person. A bird feeder is easy to build. It is necessary to cut a hole in the side part of the empty 5-liter plastic bottle from under the purified water, wide enough. At the bottom of the trough we put in the baking food (see above, what it can and can not), we tie the structure to the branch of a tree growing perpendicular to the ground at a height of one and a half to two meters. An impromptu table for tits is ready!

Sharp birds also look between window frames, in the window, where quite often people (especially the elderly) store in the winter time products: cottage cheese, butter, lard, sausage. And they feast with great pleasure!