About British Tits

There are 9 species of British tits – great tit, long-tailed tit, blue tit, coal tit, crested tit, marsh tit, willow tit, penduline tit and bearded tit. The last two – penduline and bearded are in fact ‘pseudo tits’. The other 7 are all Paridae – true tits.

Four of these species of birds – great, long-tailed, blue, and coal – are regular visitors to our garden and maybe to yours too? They are active, noisy, and social birds and a delight to watch as they search for seeds and insects.

Some people call them titmice, and the Americans – perhaps to avoid using the word ‘tit’? – call them chickadees. There are 46 species of these charming little birds on the planet, mostly in the Northern hemisphere.

And yes, we’ve done all the tit jokes, so feel free to titter out loud….

British birds

This painting was the first in a series of British bird species’ families. I’ve also painted Finches, Crows, Owls and Thrushes. I have a pack of 5 British Birds greetings cards of all five paintings.