Coal tit

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Parus ater" redirects here. For the pseudonymous writer, see
Parus Ater
.

Coal tit
Adult British coal tit, P. a. britannicus
(note greenish-grey back)

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Paridae
Genus: Periparus
Species:
P. ater
Binomial name
Periparus ater
Range of P. ater
  Resident
  Non-breeding
Synonyms

Parus ater Linnaeus, 1758

The coal tit or cole tit,

Palearctic, including North Africa. The black-crested tit is now usually included in this species
.

Taxonomy and systematics

This species was first described by

nominate subspecies today).[3] The current genus name, is Ancient Greek peri plus the pre-existing genus Parus. The specific ater is Latin for "dull black".[4]

naturalists found the folk taxonomy
of this species and the coal tit quite confusing.

Gessner also notes that the coal tit was known as Kohlmeiß in

William Turner, but Turner does not list P. ater at all, while Gessner notes that his hunters always used Kohlmeiß for the present species. However, this has since changed, and the modern German name of P. ater is Tannenmeise ("fir tit"), after a typical habitat. This name is attested (as Tannen-Maise) by Johann Leonhard Frisch in the early 18th century already, who furthermore records that P. ater was also called Kleine Kohl-Maise ("small coal tit") whereas Kohl-Maise referred unequivocally to P. major. Frisch collected his data in the Berlin region, where the German dialect was quite different from that spoken by Gessner's Alemannic sources 200 years earlier, and heavily influenced by Middle Low German – the language of the northern German sources of Turner. Regarding that, Tanne is derived from the Old Saxon danna, and thus had spread through the German dialect continuum from north to south. [6]

Most authorities still treat the coal tit in the

apomorphically.[7][needs update
]

Illustration of Parus ater cypriotes by John Gerrard Keulemans

In addition, the same data suggest that this species is

spot-winged tit (P. melanolophus) from South Asia, which looks like a slightly crested, darker version of P. ater. Consequently, the spot-winged tit might have to be included in P. ater, or some coal tits could be considered a distinct species. As occasional hybridization has been recorded between the two, mtDNA alone (which is inherited only from the mother) is insufficient to determine whether hybrid gene flow or another trivial cause (such as incomplete lineage sorting) obfuscates the actual relationships, or whether taxonomic rearrangement is indeed required. With the range of these titmice encircling the Himalayas, without further study it cannot even be excluded that they constitute a ring species – with gene flow occurring in Nepal but not in Afghanistan – as has been shown for other passerines in the same region.[7][needs update
]

Subspecies

A number of coal tit

Mediterranean are larger than those from northern Europe. Across its range, tail length in relation to body length increases along a cline running from southwest to northeast.[8]

The

uppertail coverts) and a larger bill than its relatives from Britain and the Continent.[9]

The North African race P. a. ledouci has yellow underparts and cheeks, and the Cypriot P. a. cypriotes has a buff tinge to its upper parts, and deep buff underparts. Asian subspecies are generally rather dusky brownish except for the black-and-white head;[8] they include among others P. a. michalowskii of the Caucasus, P. a. phaeonotus of Iran, or the Himalayan coal tit[10] P. a. aemodius of southwestern China.

  • Adult continental coal tit, P. a. ater (note blue-grey back)
    Adult continental coal tit, P. a. ater
    (note blue-grey back)
  • Cyprus coal tit, P. a. cypriotes (note buff underparts)
    Cyprus coal tit, P. a. cypriotes
    (note buff underparts)
  • Irish coal tit, P. a. hibernicus (note yellowish cheeks and breast)
    Irish coal tit, P. a. hibernicus
    (note yellowish cheeks and breast)

Description

Periparus ater filmed in Tokyo, Japan

The coal tit is 10–11.5 cm in length, and has a distinctive large white nape spot on its black head.

irides
dark brown.

The young birds in juvenile plumage are duller than the adults, lacking gloss on the black head, and with the white of nape and cheeks tinged with yellow.[11]

While searching for food, coal tit flocks keep contact with incessant short dee or see-see calls. The species' song – if "song" it can be called – is a strident if-he, if-he, if-he, heard most frequently from January to June, but also in autumn. The song resembles that of the great tit, but much faster and higher in pitch.[12] One variant of this song ends with a sharp ichi. North African birds also have a currr call similar to that of the crested tit (Lophophanes cristatus) which is not found in Africa.

Behaviour and ecology

Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden

It is typically a bird of

Himalayan hemlock (Tsuga dumosa) and rhododendrons.[13]

The coal tit is an all-year resident throughout almost all range, making only local movements in response to particularly severe weather; only the

nominate subspecies of continental Europe was recorded in Ireland
once in 1960 and once before that, but apparently not since then.

Coal tits will form small flocks in winter with other tits. This species resembles other tits in acrobatic skill and restless activity, though it more frequently pitches on a trunk, and in little hops resembles a

beechmast, picks out the seeds from fir (Abies) and larch (Larix) cones, and joins Carduelis redpolls and siskins in alders (Alnus) and birches (Betula). It will also visit gardens to feed on a variety of foods put out, particularly sunflower seeds
.

Coal tits in the laboratory prefer to forage at a variable feeding site when they are in a negative energy budget.[14] They increase evening body mass in response to tawny owl calls.[15] After dawn the coal tits increases body mass as soon as possible if food is obtained at a low rate, increasing body mass exponentially until an inflection point when the increase of body mass is slower.[16] The inflection point of the body mass trajectory is 16.7% delayed compared to a high food availability.[16] Subordinate coal tits are excluded from feeding sites by dominants more often in the early morning than in the rest of the day, and they showed more variability in daily mass gain and body mass at dawn than dominant coal tits.[17] In winter, the red blood cells of coal tits have been shown to contain more mitochondria, which consume oxygen and produce heat.[18][19]

Being common and widespread, the coal tit is not considered a

IUCN.[20]

The coal tit has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of bird fleas (Ceratophyllus gallinae) reported from a single nest, 5,754 fleas.[21]

Breeding

A favourite nesting site is a hole in a rotting tree-stump, often low down, and the nest is deep within the hole; holes in the ground, burrows of

eggs
are laid, usually in May; this species breeds usually once per year.

See also

Footnotes

  1. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T22735965A118835425.en
    . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. ^ "Cole tit". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  3. ^ Gessner (1555): pp.616, Linnaeus (1746, 1758)
  4. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4
    .
  5. iridescent), perhaps rather "wing-stripe tit", as in German ornithology
    Spiegel means a wing-stripe or -patch. The interpretation referring to its colorful plumage, though somewhat unusual, is the one given by Gesner however: a colorum pulchritudine quibus distinguitur – "for the beauty of its colors, which distinguish it"
  6. ^ Turner (1544a,b), Gessner (1555): pp.615–616, Frisch (1720[verification needed]), Linnaeus (1758)
  7. ^ a b Gill et al. (2005)
  8. ^ a b Snow (1954)
  9. ^ BI [2009]
  10. ^ Bangs (1932)
  11. ^
    ISBN 978-83-7763-647-3
    .
  12. ISBN 89-951415-3-0
  13. ^ Inskipp et al. (2000)
  14. hdl:10261/43939. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
  15. S2CID 33198629. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
  16. ^
    S2CID 53156385. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  17. doi:10.1093/beheco/13.5.696. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  18. ^ "Birds' blood functions as heating system in winter". phys.org. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  19. S2CID 233185485
    .
  20. ^ BLI (2009)
  21. ISBN 978-90-474-2075-0
    .

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Parus ater.
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