Here’s our day 1 of making bird species for the birds of Ukraine pack! The great tit, known in Ukrainian as велика синиця and in Russian as большая синица. I’ll be telling some information about this bird.

The great tit (Parus major) is a familiar bird species in the titmice family (Paridae) and is found in Eurasia and Northwestern Africa. It is very distinctive given by it’s iridescent black head, black neck, white cheek, white ear coverts, white nape, black throat, iridescent wings, blue iridescent tail, greyish legs, and most of the body plumage being olive color and yellow. This bird is mainly about 15 cm in length. Most great tits stay year-round in Eurasia and doesn’t migrate except in harsh winters. In Ukraine, this bird is very widespread around the country and they are common birds in gardens, backyards, and urban areas. They have adapted well to human changes in their environment. Not only does a great tit have a quite distinctive song, but also they have many songs in its repertoire and their songs seem complex. They use these songs for communication mostly, and like most of the passerine bird species in Northern Hemisphere, the males of the species are the ones who sing the most. This kind of bird is mostly insectivorous in summer, but they’ll consume a variety of food items in winter, especially the brains of some birds and hibernating bats. It is a cavity nester like all species of tits, which means they nest in tree cavities although sometimes they nest in nest boxes. The female great tit lays 12 eggs on the nest and incubates them alone, although both parents take care of the young. In some cases, the nests are raided by woodpeckers, squirrels, and weasels and may be infested with fleas, and adult great tits may be hunted by their main natural predators, sparrowhawks.