Dominic Couzens On Coal Tits

There are some surprising differences between the black-capped Coal Tit and its more colourful relatives.

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BLUE TIT, GREAT Tit, Coal Tit – the triplet of names trips neatly off the tongue. It’s easy to consider these three species as close associates. After all, they flock together, bicker at bird feeders together and compete for garden nest boxes. But are they really so similar? Well, Blue and Great Tits parallels are striking.

The Coal Tit, though, is another story. It is separate in a multitude of ways, some of which will surprise you. There is a strong argument to separate the three amigos into two plus one. Get a call from the Coal Tit’s agent, and you will be persuaded by numerous facts.

One difference that every birder would quote is that the Coal Tit is more readily found in conifer trees. On the one hand this is profoundly true, yet on the other hand the link is nuanced. Coal Tits are certainly physically adapted to foraging in conifers. They have longer feet and longer back claws and toes than the other tits. Coal Tits also have longer and narrower bills.

It is easy to see how a narrow bill is ideal for probing in the narrow fissures between needles and for handling small prey. However, a long bill isn’t so good for spotting prey close to the bill tip, leading to the delightful thought that Coal Tits might keep missing nearby targets as they forage, saying “Darn it, missed!” repeatedly up in the treetops. Coal Tits, with their light bodies and relatively long, narrow wings, are also superior in their hovering and hawking ability, which presumably also helps in foraging around dense branches of needles. Having said that, Coal Tits do, of course, occur – indeed, flourish – in other types of woodland.