banner
Line Line
back
Blue Titmouse Cyanistes caeruleus

This little and very colourful bird is one of the most popular to have in one's garden. It's the only bird in Holland that is just blue and yellow. The bird is very acrobatic, lively and extremely intelligent. In England it is known to open milkbottles in order to get to the fat on top of the milk. In wintertime it will surely appear in one's garden and it will show off it's acrobatic abilities to gain the food, like peanuts-in-a-net. In wintertime it's often accompanied by other tits like the Great Tit and the Coal tit. The Blue Tit is also a bird that can easily be tempted to build it's nest in your garden. Just provide it with a box... You should mind though that the opening isn't too large, for then the Great Tit will push out the smaller Blue Titmouse. It's not common for any tit too be so trusting of people that they sit on your hand. This picture was taken under peculiar circumstances. In our garden we have a pond. We recommend every bird lover who has a garden to make a (little) pond. Birds need to drink water regularly and many also love to bath! It's also a good way to see birds that you normally only hear. Many birds are rather shy towards people, others are not, but live high up in trees and are therefore hard to spot. A pool however is a temptation hard to resist and even those hard-to-spot birds will show their interest. Now when birds leave their nest for the first time they are not the best of flyers and it sometimes happens they don't know what a pond is or try to sit on a twig just above the pond that is too fragile to hold their weight and consequently they fall into the water. That's what happened to the very young Blue Tit sitting on my hand. Now when either my wife or I see that happening, we rush out and take the little snotnose from the water. And especially during cold and rainy summers we take them into the house until they are all dried up. It's during such a period that they are very calm (probably almost unconcious) and you can have them sitting on your hand like here. By the way: don't stroke or pet them. Birds don't like that at all and many will even panic!


This bird belongs to the family of Titmice or Chickadees (Pariidae). It is very common in our garden and can be seen in Holland all year round. The bird is 4" and weighs 11 grams. It lives in woodlands, parks and gardens mostly. It eats insects and little seeds. The sexes do not differ from one another. The birds make their nest in april or may, usually in tree, but artificial opportunities for breeding are gladly accepted. The bird produces an impressive number of eggs, seven to fourteen! The time it spends sitting on the eggs is relatively long for such a small bird: two weeks. It takes the hatchlings about 17 days to be able to leave the nest. Scientifically this bird is also known by its former name Parus caeruleus.

Vogelgeluid Vogelgeluid