Marsh Tit © Steve Round
Marsh Tit adults are amongst the most site-faithful of all passerine species. They stay paired throughout the winter and remain on their large territory even in hard weather. They defend the territory against their neighbours, especially using their loud ‘pitchou’ calls. Unpaired first-winter birds, on the other hand, join mixed-species tit flocks in winter, which roam at will, and territorial adults do not defend their territories against these birds; indeed, they may well join a roaming flock whilst it moves around their territory (BTO Winter Atlas). They can be present but quite elusive at times. In 26 years of ringing in February and March at Aston (SJ56P) I caught Marsh Tits in half of the years, but with a seven-year gap from 1994-2000.
Following this description of their habits, it was surprising to find Marsh Tits reported from 50 tetrads in winter, twenty more than in the breeding season. Many of the extra tetrads with winter records were within one or two tetrads of the core breeding sites, and could be interpreted as dispersal of first-year birds, but up to ten of the records were from isolated tetrads, at least 5 km distant from the nearest known breeding site. Conversely, four tetrads in the east of the county furnished records of single birds in the breeding season, but none was found within those 10 km squares in winter.
Their winter food is more widespread than their apparently restricted breeding requirements. Beech mast is a key part of their diet if present, along with the seeds and fruits of other trees and shrubs, and insects if they can find them. They store food, usually in moss on or near the ground, often for only a few hours during a day, perhaps to avoid it being taken by the larger and more dominant other tit species.
There are no benchmarks for the species’ former distribution or abundance. They were not separated from the Willow Tit until 1897, and all Cheshire records of ‘brown tits’ were lumped in with Marsh Tit; neither Boyd nor Bell makes any significant comment on them in winter.
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