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Great Tit

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Birds

                    iGreat Tit

                             Conservation status

   Least Concern (LC)
            Scientific classification

   Kingdom: Animalia
   Phylum:  Chordata
   Class:   Aves
   Order:   Passeriformes
   Family:  Paridae
   Genus:   Parus
   Species: P. major

                                Binomial name

   Parus major
   Linnaeus, 1758

   The Great Tit, Parus major, is a passerine bird in the tit family
   Paridae. It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe and
   Asia in any sort of woodland. It is resident, and most birds do not
   migrate.

   It is an easy tit to recognise, large in size at 14 cm, with a broad
   black line (broader in the male) down its otherwise yellow front. The
   neck and head are black with white cheeks and ear coverts. Upperparts
   are olive. It has a white wingbar and outer tail feathers. In young
   birds the black is replaced by brown, and the white by yellow.

   There are many races of this widespread species, but they fall into
   three groups. Birds in temperate Europe and Asia are essentially green
   above and yellow below. Great Tits in China, Japan and southeastern
   Russia are green above and white or yellow-tinged white below, and
   birds in India and southeast Asia are grey above and whitish below.

   It is, like other tits, a vocal bird, and has a large variety of calls,
   of which the most familiar is a "teacher, teacher", also likened to a
   squeaky wheelbarrow wheel. Interestingly, the birds from the two south
   Asian groups of races do not recognise the calls of the temperate Great
   Tits, and they may be a separate species.

   Any hole will do for a nest, and it will readily take to nest boxes.
   The number in the clutch is often very large, but seven or eight white
   eggs, spotted red, are normal, with bigger clutches being laid by two
   or even more hens. The bird is a close sitter, hissing when disturbed.

   Like other tits, its food is insects, especially caterpillars when
   feeding young, and seeds. In England, Great Tits learned to break open
   the foil caps sealing bottles of milk that had been delivered to homes
   to get at the cream floating on top. This is a common and popular
   European garden bird, due to its acrobatic performances when feeding on
   nuts or seed. It will join winter tit flocks with other species.

Gallery

   Indian race P. m. stupae

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Tit"
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