Great Tit Info

The Great Tit is the largest bird in the ‘tit’ family. Although a woodland bird it is very adapted to man-made habitats and is an easily recognisable visitor to most parks and garden. Green and yellow with a striking glossy black head with white cheeks and a distinctive two-syllable song.

The Great Tit will take seeds and nuts off garden bird feeders although it is an insect eater, hence the thin pointed beak. So having a very good supply of insects in the garden, stimulated for example by compost heaps or log piles, is a good way to keep the birds interested in your patch.

Although I believe it is possible for Great Tits to have two broods per year, in my experience, and certainly in my garden, they only raised 1 nest. They start nest building around March to ensure the chicks fledge sometime in May, typical clutch size between 7-10 eggs.

I’ve found they are very happy to use the provided nest boxes and will use a box with hole size around 28mm. These boxes can also be used by blue tits but I’ve seen that the larger Great Tits dominate and always grab the best nest sites.