Why are my garden Coal Tits so infrequent?

QIs there a reason why I only see Coal Tits on my garden feeders infrequently? I assume they live close by, as they’re such small birds. I can’t imagine them travelling far, but they seem to come and go. Mrs A Smith

AThere could be a number of reasons, not least that the Coal Tits that visit you might have a number of good regular food sources that they visit in rotation. The most likely reason, though, is that they’re deterred from visiting when larger birds are present. Coal Tits are easily bullied off feeders by Blue Tits and Great Tits, let alone Chaffinches and Starlings, so tend to make flying visits – look closely and you’ll see that they generally grab seeds from the feeder, then fly away to eat them in cover, rather than risk being robbed by their larger cousins.