Backyard and Beyond

A friend sent me this picture of birds this morning and it took a couple of minutes for me to figure out what they were. I’ve never seen them in the feather.

They’re Europan Blue tits, Cyanistes caeruleus (formerly Parus caeruleus). The photo was taken in Sweden, where even the birds have a strong social safety net.

Right, as a stereotypical British bobby might say, what’s all this about tits, then? Locally, we have the tufted titmouse, a lovely bird you’re most likely to see during the winter even though it’s a year ‘round resident. The Black-capped chickadee, another resident, is related to the tits as well. But most tits are European, of the genus Parus/family Paridae.

This meaning of tit, according to the OED, is probably of Scand. origin, and has an entirely separate etymology from the standard meaning of the word. The Old Norse titlingr and Icelandic titlingur mean sparrow; Norwegian dialect titling is “a small size of stockfish.” Small seems to be key: a tit is also a small horse.