Big Garden Birdwatch ID guide, round 1: Tits and finches

• A colourful mix of blue, yellow, white and green feathers. 
• Look for a very short and thin black beak – perfect for nibbling on nuts. 
• Blue Tits like nest boxes, so in spring keep an eye on yours for noisy, blue inhabitants!

• Peanuts in feeders
• Fat balls and suet cakes 
• Hulled sunflower seeds  

Like their chipper attitude, a Blue Tit’s song is bright and breezy, often sounding like “tsee tsee tsee.” Their alarm call, on the other hand, is a distinct and angry ‘churring’ – like they’re giving you a good telling off – often heard when you get too close to their hedgerow perch!

• Black heads with white cheeks. Their backs are grey, while their tummies are buff-brown. 
• Listen for an up-down song, sounding a little like a bicycle pump in action! 
• Check for white wing bars and a white patch on the back of the head (to be sure it’s not a Marsh or Willow Tit). 

• Seeds, especially black sunflower seeds 
• Peanuts in feeders 
• Suet balls and pellets  

Coal Tits have a high-pitched ‘pe-pee’ call, which feels somewhat in keeping with its diminutive form! They often repeat it, giving you a good chance to get your ear in.

• Puffy, white tummies with a tinge of pink. Slightly squished-looking beak! 
• Black eyebrow, swooping all the way down the back and onto the long tail. 
• Undulating flight between trees and bushes, usually in chatty groups. 

• Mixed birdseed 
• Peanuts in feeders
• Fat balls and suet pellets

Long-tailed Tits don’t so much sing as chat excitably. You'll often hear them using high pitched shrills to communicate as groups dart from tree to tree. They also utter a “sirrut sirrut” sound when they feel threatened. 

• Black cap, green back and bright yellow tummy with a black stripe down the middle. 
• Long, thin beak – perfect for pecking at peanuts in a feeder! 
• Can be mistaken for a Blue Tit, but lacks any blue, and is larger.

• Great Tits aren’t fussy, and will often visit any feeder you put out! 
• Peanuts in bird feeders
• Sunflower hearts

Great Tits have a wide song vocabulary, from the easily-recognisable ‘tee-cher, tee-cher', to the fiendishly difficult tunes and trills. One common call is a recurring "chink", not to be confused with the "pink pink" Chaffinch call.  

• Males have a grey cap and pink breast, while females are dark brown on their backs, and buff-brown on their chest. Both have darker wings, with a white stripe.
• Look for a large, strong beak – perfect for crushing seeds and nuts. 
• Chaffinches have a hopping habit, often on the ground under bird tables and hedges. 

• Kibbled peanuts 
• Mixed nuts and seeds, including sunflower hearts 
• Suet pellets and fat cakes 

Chaffinches have a number of calls, but their most recognisable is their loud ‘pink, pink’ call. Less insistent and more sporadic than a Blackbird’s ‘chinking’.

• Look out for a flash of yellow, black and red as flocks flit between trees and bushes. 
• Often seen perched on plant stems and branches, nibbling on seedheads. 
• Listen for a sunshiney song, with lots of fast notes and trills. 

• Grow thistles and teasels for Goldfinches to eat direct from the seedheads. 
• Niger seeds 
• Sunflower hearts

A fast-paced song with chirps, trills and warbling notes, a charm of Goldfinches warbling together is a lovely sound. Less a specific tune, and more like the babbling of a brook.

• Slightly stern looking, with dark eyes and a chunky beak.
• Warm yellow/green colouring, with vibrant yellow flashes on the wings. 
• Can be mistaken with a Siskin, which is smaller, streakier and brighter. 

• Black sunflower seeds 
• Peanuts in bird feeders 
• Greenfinches also love Rosehips, Yew and Hawthorn berries, so growing these plants for them is a great way to attract them.   

Greenfinches sing in a bright voice that can sometimes sound a little wheezy. Singing while perched, you might hear a variety of trills, including a repeated ‘too-eee’, followed by a ‘dweeez’. Its call in flight is a repetitive and rapid "chichichichit".