Blue Tits can be found throughout most of the Western Palearctic region and are one of Britain's commonest and most familiar birds.
They were originally adapted for a life in deciduous woodland, especially oak, but they are an extremely adaptive and opportunistic species and can also be found in a variety of other habitats, most visibly in suburban and urban gardens and parks where they readily take advantage of food put out on bird tables and peanut feeders. Their opportunistic feeding strategies range from stealing the cream from milk bottles left on the doorstep, to the far more macabre example of them being observed entering caves to feed on the fat deposits of hibernating bats! These attacks are invariably fatal to the bats as it takes too long for them to awaken from their torpor to be able to defend themselves.
The individual shown in the photos above and below has a badly deformed bill. Abnormally long bills like this are usually caused when the tip of one of the mandibles, in this case the lower mandible, is broken off, allowing the upper mandible to continue to grow unchecked. Because this type of deformity arises gradually over a period of time, the bird usually has time to learn to adapt and alter its mode of feeding to suit its new bill shape. For example, the bird shown here was observed on numerous occasions winkling out morsels of food from deep crevices and holes that ordinary Blue Tits would have had no chance of reaching with their short stubby bills.
 Lancashire, England - February 2007 |
 moulting juvenile - Lothian, Scotland - September 2005 |
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