Eleanor Whitfield
Why tits are the perfect birds to start with
Tits are the ideal group for a beginner naturalist. They are common, confiding, and wonderfully noisy, and four species turn up regularly in British gardens and woodland: the great tit, the blue tit, the coal tit and the marsh tit. Between them they cover almost every habitat you are likely to visit — a suburban feeder, a hedgerow, an oak wood or a damp alder carr. Because they are so approachable, you get long, close views rather than a glimpse, which is exactly what you need when you are learning.
They also give you a manageable challenge. Rather than trying to identify everything at once, you can spend a winter getting to know four birds properly. Once you can separate these, the rest of your garden list becomes far easier.
Start with size: the quickest filter
Before you look at colour, judge the bird's build. Approximate lengths are a useful anchor: a great tit is around 14cm, a blue tit around 12cm, and a coal or marsh tit around 11.5cm.
A great tit looks like a blue tit that has been stretched. It is noticeably bulkier, with a longer tail, a bigger head and a chunkier bill. Blue tits are compact and almost round, always busy, often hanging upside down. Coal and marsh tits sit between the two: smaller and neater than a great tit, but with a slightly more upright, deliberate way of moving than a blue tit. If a bird looks like it has been puffed up and given extra tail, it is probably a great tit.
Read the head pattern
The head is where tits give away most of their secrets. Get into the habit of checking three things in order: the cap, the cheeks, and whether there is a pale patch on the back of the neck.
- Great tit: black cap, black nape, and large, clean white cheek patches that look almost painted on.
- Blue tit: a blue cap, a white face crossed by a dark line through the eye, and no white patch at the back of the neck.
- Coal tit: a black cap, white cheeks, and a striking white patch on the nape — a head torch you will notice even from behind.
- Marsh tit: a matt black cap, dull grey-brown cheeks rather than brilliant white, and no white nape patch at all.
That white nape spot, or its absence, is the single most reliable feature for separating a coal tit from a marsh tit. Take your time with it.
The black bib: yes, no, and how big
The black marking under the bill is the third clue, and it varies neatly across the group.
A great tit has a full bib. The black runs from the chin straight down the middle of the yellow breast and often into the belly, broader in males than females. It looks like a stripe rather than a bib. A coal tit has a small, neat black bib restricted to the throat, stopping well above the chest; it always looks tidy and contained. A marsh tit also has a small bib, but it tends to look softer and less crisp, and it can be hard to see against the greyish underparts — which is why the cheeks and wings matter more.
Blue tits, by contrast, have no bib at all. They show a narrow dark chin stripe and a dark line through the eye, but nothing that reads as a black throat patch. If you find yourself asking whether a bird has a bib, the answer is usually the difference between a great tit and everything else.
Marsh or willow? The tricky pair
Marsh tits have a near-identical twin: the willow tit. Even experienced birdwatchers struggle with them, and plumage alone is often not enough. Look at the overall colour — marsh tits are warm brown with a glossy black cap and a pale patch at the base of the bill, while willow tits are colder, greyer and scruffier, with a matt cap and a bigger, puffier-looking head. Marsh tits also have plain wings with no pale panel, whereas a willow tit often shows a faint light wing panel.
The honest answer is that voice is the clincher. Marsh tits give a sharp, sneeze-like "pitchoo", while willow tits make a nasal, buzzing "zee-zee-zee". Marsh tits are the bird of England and Wales, absent from Ireland; willow tits are scarcer, prefer damp scrub and alder, and are sadly declining. If you cannot hear the bird, record it as "marsh or willow tit" and move on. That is a perfectly respectable journal entry.
Keeping a nature journal that actually gets used
The point of a journal is not neat handwriting — it is noticing more. Keep it to five minutes per session, and record the same handful of things every time: date, time, weather, place, which feeder or tree the bird used, and what it was doing.
- Count as well as identify. Two blue tits and a great tit is far more useful than "lots of tits".
- Sketch heads. A rough outline of the cap, cheek and bib will teach you more than any description.
- Note the first date you see each species in autumn, and whether birds arrive in mixed flocks — winter tits often travel together.
- Write down what you are unsure about. Uncertainty is data, and next week's visit will help resolve it.
Do this through one autumn and winter and you will know these four birds without thinking. Better still, you will have a record of your own patch that nobody else has.
