Great Tit (Parus major) is the best known and most common of our tits. Who doesn't know this lively bird with conspicuously yellow flanks and belly, interrupted in the middle by a black stripe like a tie? This species is also characterized by white cheeks, bordered by a broad black mask, a completely black head, a green back, and a white transverse stripe on bluish-gray wings. It is about 14 cm long and is thus only slightly smaller than the domestic sparrow.
The Great Tit inhabits various types of forests, avoiding only pure stands of conifers. For nesting, a garden or park with enough different trees and a shrub or dense hedgerow is sufficient. It nests in a tree cavity, so it likes to occupy a nesting box that we place on a tree by the house, as long as the hole is suitably large and the nesting box is protected from the strong sun. In Slovenia it nests between March and May, but we will be able to observe it year-round, as it is widespread and a very common resident here.
In the warm part of the year it feeds on insects and their larvae, and with the arrival of autumn it shifts to plant-based foods, especially seeds rich in oils.
