What does the tit eat in summer and in winter?

Many people know and love the bird-titmouse. She is a famous character in folk tales, fables and stories about nature. Titmouse can be found in various forests - deciduous and coniferous, in open areas, fringes, along the shores of large and small bodies of water, in parks. Most of the tits remain in their homeland in winter. Unless, if it happens too harsh winter, fly a little south. In Russia, the most common tit (or large). It is the largest and most numerous. About what the titmouse feeds in summer and winter, what its habitat and appearance look like, read this article.

Appearance

This bird can be recognized by striking eyeswhite cheeks. Head and neck (tie) are painted black. The abdomen is yellow, and the upper part is blue-black or olive with small variations in many subspecies. On the back of the head, you can see a white spot with a yellowish tinge. Wings and tail - with a blue. The bird itself resembles the appearance of a brightly colored sparrow (not for nothing that it is ranked among a large group of passerines). The blue-and-yellow with the black color is far noticeable in the forest, especially in the winter.

Titmouse has strong legs and tenaciousclaws, allowing it to hang upside down in search of food in the trees. This is a very mobile and fidgety bird. Body weight - up to 20 grams, length - 15 cm, wingspan - up to 25 cm. The name "titmouse" is supposed to be due to the fact that part of the feathers of the bird has a blue color.

Habitat

Tits nest mainly in hollows of trees and incavities of the trunk, in various niches - a natural character or made by the hands of a person. Tits live in forests, gardens, groves. In winter they wander in droves in search of food, with pleasure settling closer to a man, when the cold winter makes them look for food everywhere. What does the tit eat in natural conditions? What are her culinary preferences? What does this bird like to eat most of all?

Ration

Titmole in summer mostly eats insects. Most of them refer to unconditional pests of trees - wild and fruit. Its tapered beak, slightly flattened from the sides, the tits can penetrate into a variety of cracks in the bark of trees and shrubs, extracting from there the larvae, pupae, eggs of insects. In the food are adults. So, the question about what the bugs eat in the summer, you can answer as follows: different insects. This is the great benefit of birds for gardeners: they help to destroy pests. And this little bird eats quite a lot: as much as it weighs itself.

Also, tits sometimes pull seeds from cones of coniferous trees with their beaks, they can peck out various fruits.

Feeding chicks

Their nests of a titmouse settle down in depressions andcrevices of old trees, in hollows left of woodpeckers, among snags and stumps. Do not disdain and artificial "sinnikov" or suitable shelters in the buildings of man.

The nest is twisted from small branches, dry grasses,horse hair, cocoons of spiders and insects, cobwebs. The female lays up to 15 eggs, incubating them for a couple of weeks. The male carries the fodder of the expectant mother 2-3 times per hour.

What does the tit feed on during incubation (and thisoccurs twice a year, usually in April and June)? Again in the course are larvae and pupae of insects, worms, beetles, dragonflies, butterflies. Sometimes - seeds of herbs or pieces of berries and fruits. After the chicks hatch, parents feed them intensively, bringing food up to 300 times a day. They are fed mainly by insects for 20 days.

What does the tit do in winter

All kinds of tits are great friends of a person. They deserve care and good attitude to themselves. Especially in winter, when you need to eat a lot in order to survive and keep warm in the cold. Probably, therefore, small flocks of tits all winter in the forest wander, accompanying woodpeckers. Claws of the titmice are attached to any branch, and, swinging upside down, carefully examine the cracks and cracks in the bark of trees, deepenings and other hidden shelters in the hope of eating. If you're lucky, they take out the stupefied insects. Such a useful activity destroys pests in the winter, when many insectivores fly south to heat. Also, the benefit of tits is that they extract insects from such shelters, which are inaccessible to larger birds (for example, woodpeckers).

What does the tit eat in the winter? Some species are inclined to harvest food in reserve, hiding food in various cracks on the bark, in cracks, hollows. It can be said that in winter the bird's diet is wider. For example, she eats bats that have fallen into hibernation.

From the hands of man

What do the tits eat in the winter? What to feed these friendly and useful birds? First, it is necessary to make feeders for birds living in gardens and parks. Tits with pleasure and often visit them, they feed on sunflower seeds, bacon (necessarily unsalted), bread crumbs, milk cream. Sometimes nimble birds look between the window panes in the window, where in winter some people store their food - lard, butter, cottage cheese - and they peck with pleasure.