A useful bird, or Why did they call it blue?

The most famous sini in the world is the so-called large tit, inhabiting Europe, the Middle East, North and Central Asia, and also in some regions of North Africa. Have you ever wondered why a little blue was called a tit? Did these feathered creatures once were blue? What is this name for a bird, painted in yellow, green and gray? Let's try to figure this out.

Who is this little bird?

From a scientific point of view, the titmouse (a photo of a large titmouse is presented in the article) is a representative of a group of sparrow-like birds belonging to the same family. The most famous tit is big. It can be found in the gardens and parks of Europe, Central and North Asia, the Middle East and even northern Africa.

What do the tits eat?

They are moving and bright birds. In the summer, they feed exclusively on animal feed, and in winter they also go to plant food. In search of their favorite food - insects - they climb the branches, rummage there all available cracks, holes.

Sinichka, the photo of which you now see is a non-migratory bird. In other words, in the cold season, she does not leave her native land, hibernating side by side with a man. In search of food during this period, entire flocks of titmouses fly from one place to another. Where there is a lot of necessary food, they linger for a long time.

Titmouse is a useful bird!

Before we know about the reason why a bluebird was called a tit, one should note the invaluable benefits that it brings. Tits are real helpers of gardeners and truck farmers. The fact is that they destroy harmful insects, causing irreparable damage to parks and gardens.

For example, a large titmouse at night eats an equal number of insect pests equal to its own weight. That's why these birds are usually called to their garden plots. This can be done with the help of fertilizing. So you can keep in your garden more than one generation of these funny birds.

Why did they call it blue?

It is enough only one glance at these feathered creatures to understand that they are not blue at all, but yellow-green with shades of black. There are quite a lot of versions of their names, and almost all of them came from the people.

For example, in the people it is believed that this name was given by this person to a person who suffered from color blindness. Some versions are generally ridiculous: the meat of this bird has a blue color, ostensibly from here and its name.

Jokes are jokes, but there is still no single version of why the little blue-eyed bitch was called a tit. At present, there are two most plausible and generally accepted explanations. One of them may soon be true.

1. The first version says that the singing of these birds is very similar to two human words - "zin-zin". It is believed that first on the basis of the consonance of these birds began to be called zinnits, and afterwards - tits. However, even here you can argue, because different people in the singing of these birds hear something of their own. For example, in Europe, it is believed that the tits do not pronounce "zin-zin", but "pin-pin-tararah". The Ukrainians hear in this "prince-prince-tararah".
2. According to the second version, the name "blue" is still connected with the color shade of this creature. Linguists together with historians believe that in the Old Russian language the word "blue" meant a slightly different color shade than at the present time. The fact is that the concept of "blue" then was more extensive than now. In Russia, blue was considered to be black with a bluish tint, and in the tit just the so-called "cap" has this shade.

The most amusing little cousin

It is impossible to remain silent about it. The most amusing bird of the Sinichev family is the crested tit (photo 3), or grenadier. It is a small songbird inhabiting almost all of Europe. Its favorite habitats are the middle and northern latitudes with coniferous and mixed forests. Her name was not accidental. Its distinct conical crest, crowning a small head, looks like the caps of elite infantrymen of the XVII-XVIII centuries - grenadiers.

How much does this miracle weigh?

The tussock crested (photo 4) is a small, but mobile and pretty feathered creature. In its size grenadier significantly inferior to the famous big titmouse. The length of the crested bird's body does not exceed 13 cm, and the wingspan is 20 cm. This miracle weighs no more than 12 g. The black and white crest on the head is a distinctive feature of these birds.

What does the crested tit eat?

The bird is blue, like her cousins, is carnivorous. Its main food in the spring-summer period is small invertebrates (crustaceans, mollusks, insects) and their larvae. Crested birds love to eat beetles-leaf beetles and weevils, as well as butterflies and spiders. Willingly they eat flies and mosquitoes, wasps and bees, dragonflies, aphids, ants.

In the autumn-winter period the crested titmice switches to the plant vegetation. They feed on seeds of fir, pine, alder, birch and spruce, and also eat berries of juniper, mountain ash, hawthorn and cornelian. In the early spring, when the insects have not woken up yet, the "khokhlushki" feed on the aspen anthers and drink birch and maple juice.