Photo by: British Nature Guide

Marsh Tit

British Nature Guide

Telling apart the Marsh Tit (Poecile palustris) from its near-doppelganger the Willow Tit is an age-old conundrum that has puzzled many ornithologists (they were only separated from each other as species at the turn of the Twentieth Century). Sporting a very similar buff brown plumage, replete with black crown and bib, it’s not hard to see why and by far the easiest way to tell the two apart in the field is by listening for their calls: Marsh Tits issue an explosive, sneeze-like ‘pitchou’, while the Willow Tit emits a nasal ‘chay-chay’. Both of these woodland dwelling species have been recorded in the Wrekin Forest but their habitat needs differ slightly, with Willow Tits displaying a marked preference for wet scrub and young trees. Marsh Tits, on the other hand, tend to live in mature deciduous woods, where they spend most of their time foraging for insects, spiders, forest fruits and seeds. Arming yourself with this type of knowledge can prove very useful because evidence suggests they are very much part of a pecking order. Marsh Tits, it seems, tend to forage near ground level to avoid competing with their Blue and Great Tit cousins higher up the canopy. Consequently, the amount of ground cover present in the understorey appears to be the most important consideration for them, which might explain why the shrub-rich, roadside woodlands around the Forest Glen always seem to be the most reliable places to view these gregarious birds.

Quick ID: neat-looking Tit with buff plumage, black crown and bib, often found searching for food at ground level (where it calls frequently).

When and where: mature broadleaved woodland with a shrub-rich understorey — try Dairy Pit Coppice, Hazel Hurst (the woodland on the northeast slopes of The Wrekin between the Forest Glen and Halfway House), Limekiln Wood, The Ercall and the green lane to Maddocks Hill Quarry.

Mirroring the national picture, Willow Tit has declined rapidly around the Wrekin Forest and is no longer recorded in a number of locations where it was formerly present (such as the Ironbridge Gorge, for example).

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