Tiny coal tits put surveyors on alert

Coal tits – one of Britain’s smallest garden birds – have seen their biggest ever influx this November. Spotted in more than 70 per cent of gardens, it is thought the cold weather or a lack of tree seeds in the wider countryside may be behind the rise in sightings.

With striking black and white striped heads, and brown and grey plumage, tiny coal tits are often driven away from bird feeders by the larger, more aggressive great tits and blue tits.

They therefore have a habit of darting to a feeder, quickly taking a seed and hiding it in moss or a crevice to eat later.

Coal tits generally prefer to remain within woodland, and in summer are recorded in fewer than a third of gardens.

In the winter they are driven to garden bird feeders more frequently by cold weather, and are recorded by around 40 per cent of surveyors. Samantha Herbert