I saw an article in our "local" paper about the unique charm of chickadees. (If you like,
see here.) I think the writer's main thought is correct: in the States a lot of people find chickadees to be special, and people who pay any attention to birds often have an interest story about chickadees.
I wonder if the same is true in Britain (or anywhere in Europe or Asia)? I have heard stories about Blue Tits (I think) taking the cream off of milk bottles, but is there any of the tit species (wherever you are) that consistently seems to have interesting interactions with people or are noted for their fascinating activities?
We have several varieties of the tit family. Chickadee sounds a bit more polite! Their full name is really Titmouse.
We trained them to take peanuts from our hand one hard Winter and this was an interesting experiment for two reasons
Firstly I was able to assess their range as they followed me down the farm for over a mile. I had previously thought that they would have a far more limited range.
Secondly having a break from the nuts in the Summer they still had the memory from the previous year and this continued for several years until we had a series of mild Winters.
Some years the Tit barracking was so intense that the poor Postman was besieged and we had to give him a pocket full of nuts to keep them at bay!
Later I devised an intelligence test.
This comprised of a clear plastic tube about foot long and a couple of inches in diameter I soldered some coins on some wire and cut a slot in the side of the tube in six places in a line going down about two inches apart.
The wire was inserted into the tube and acted like a butterfly valve in a carburettor. one end of the wire was inserted through a hole which created a bearing and the other end sat in a u shaped slot as the other bearing.
This end continued out into a T piece where the bird could land on one side and tip the coin in the tube to release a peanut which was collected at the bottom. The wire was counterbalanced with another coin which closed the butterfly valve when the bird flew off.
I started with just one valve. At the top of the tube I made a funnel with some holes in it and a good supply of peanuts which the birds could peck at and dislodge into the tube a few at a time.
When the birds became familiar with this I introduced another valve. This stumped them for only a short time and eventually I put in half a dozen valves,
It was very good to see the bird hop nimbly from one valve to the next to release the nuts.
I found that the Blue Tits were very good and soon grasped the idea, the Great Tits were rather more clumsy and achieved a result more by luck than intelligence. But without doubt the most intelligent was the Coal Tit which waited at the bottom of the tube for the Blue Tits to do all the hard work and then rob them of the prize!
I think that the birds really enjoyed this machine and I do have an old cine film of them all having a go. I must transfer it to digital and put it on youtube for you.
We have also a dear little family of Long Tailed Tits who build the most beautiful nests. They always stick together as a family and drift through the garden usually half a dozen or more at a time.
Lovely little birds and always full of fun.
