Willow Tit Poecile montana  [von Baldenstein, 1827]

Willow Tit P.m. kleinschmidti

(Extremely rare R)

  1. Two, not aged, 29th March 1974 (J. Barber).
  2. One, not aged, 12th Sep. 1976 (A. Merritt). See note 1 below.
  3. One, not aged, 14th Sep. 1976 (A. Merritt). See note 1 below.
  4. One, ringed, 25th Aug. 1990 (P.J. Chadwick).
  5. Present, 16th April 1992 (R.U. Lambert).* See note 2 below.
  6. One, ♂ not aged, 17th-25th March 2001 (P. Fletcher, N.R. Milbourne et al.).

Note 1: Birds noted at two different sites on the dates given.

Note 2: I don’t know if Roger’s record was submitted to the AOG Recorder’s committee. I found it entered in the Top End hide diary.

I’m assuming there must have been earlier records than those listed here, though field identification was not really bottomed out until the early-mid 20th century.

The most recent record was of a bird noted visiting the Ubley Hatchery feeders by Paz Fletcher and I. It visited the Hatchery and neighbouring garden feeders regularly and was seen by many observers; I even heard it singing early in the morning on two dates.

Bibliography (sources of information)

  1. Davis, A.H. Birds at Blagdon Lake 1963-1983. Bristol Ornith. 18: 102-116. Bristol Ornithological Club.