Monday 31 October 2011

Long Tailed Tits

Along the cycle path between Abingdon and Oxford the hawthorn bushes are now full of berries. Shortly they will be consumed by the redwings and fieldfares which will soon be arriving from Northern Europe.  
Until then, the native small birds are making the most of them, goldfinches, blue tits, great tits and this  flock of long tailed tits:
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3 comments:

  1. Well done getting those pictures. Long tailed tits are too quick for me! They were talking about blue tits on Autumnwatch and they said that although they are usually insect eaters that their diet includes seeds and berries in autumn and winter. It's probably the same for the long tailed variety (though they're not actually tits!)

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  2. Hi Rachel, good to hear from you again.
    I didn't actually know that long tailed tits weren't actually tits. I've now studied them and may use this as a basis for a post of taxonomy, which I've been planning for a while.
    As for the pictures, like all the others in this blog, it was just luck. But I have struggled for a long time to get a picture of one.

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  3. Don't they have funny little faces!

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