Great Tit (eng.) - Kjøttmeis (nor.) - Parus major (lat.)
The Great Tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. A common and friendly little bird with many different nicknames. Like many other birds, they have a meeting place in their local gourmet restaurant as we humans make all kinds of feeding stations for them, both in the city and in the countryside. These feeding stations are precious to the birds in long cold months of winter and an oasis of entertainment and valued knowledge for us who feed them. These birds are not «programmed» to hoard food in the winter so it is very practical for them to keep close to us who love to provide for them. This is important since they need a lot of energy to survive the cold season and they do not build reserves of fat. Many of the small tits almost live from day to day.
During winter here it is normally cold and lots of snow, and in that period the Great Tit primarily lives on vegetal food. The rest of the year, it feast on beetles, spiders and larvae, which our surroundings luckily still have plenty of. Though this bird is colorful and nice to have around the house, do not be fooled by its beauty and innocence. These birds could also be classified as birds of prey, since they may kill and eat smaller birds like the Gold crest (Regulus regulus) or even bats.
Here you can listen to the song of the Great Tit: https://www.fuglelyder.net/kjoettmeis/
They may lay eggs twice during the spring and summer seasons with everything from 5 to 12 eggs. We have several birdhouses around in our garden and it was a joy to observe several hatchlings last summer from different species. This is wonderful as we get a greater diversity to observe and listen to. Besides, it’s much better that mosquitos get to be food instead of us being food for the mosquitos.
In Norway, it was believed that it would bring you luck if you met a Great tit on your way
We could write a lot about the Great Tit, and there are so many stories and legends about them from many countries, so here’s a short introduction and some few stories.
This bird is one of the most common birds here in Norway, which is the reason it has a lot of different nicknames around the country, such as: “Talgtit”, “Kjøtt Erik”, “Kjøtspikke”, “Tertit” and “Tete”.
There is also an old saying that if the Great Tit picks on your window (which they often do to eat the putty), the coming winter would be harsh and cold. In the old days, the Great Tit was supposed to have magical abilities, and it was said that if you hung two legs from a Great Tit (yes, you read it right) in an apple tree, it would never carry fruits again. Another says that if you put the ashes of a Great Tit’s burnt heart onto other birds’ eggs, it would never hatch. Why anyone would do such things, is a whole different question.
A more funny thing is how different meanings of the same bird can be. Just look at the difference between Norway and France for instance. In Norway, it was believed that it would bring you luck if you met a Great tit on your way, while in France they believed the opposite. It would bring you bad luck. As I said, The Great Tit is one of those birds that carry a lot of myths and stories in different countries.
A myth from Romania says that God once decided what kind of food the different birds should eat, and the Great Tit was given pumpkin seeds. It was happy and rejoiced over being able to eat something so sweet and delicious, but it did not think about the difficulty of getting the seeds out from the hard fruit. Later on, when Jesus came to the Earth, the birds complained about their distress and asked him to make a hole into the pumpkin. Jesus listened to their prayer and made a hole so they could get inside the pumpkin and eat as much as they wanted. Unfortunately, they forgot to ask for two holes so that they also could get out after eating. Therefore, as the story tells, the Great Tits can easily be captured inside a pumpkin.
In Estonia, people mean that the Great tit has an angry and stern look, and that people looking angry towards others are said to have “Tit-eyes”.
From Switzerland, it is said that girls who were pushy and bothersome are called Tit, referring to the Great Tit that could be both rude and intrusive.
From Denmark, there is a story about an old man who was tired of life and went into the woods to hang himself. A Great Tit sang its song “ti-ti-taa, ti-titaa…” which the old man heard as “Slit din tid, slit din tid”, meaning something like: “Bide your time, bide your time”. The old man listened and struck by its message, took the rope off his neck, went home, and lived happily after.
I guess there are lots of other stories as well, so if you readers know any, feel free to send us on valabaerjet@gmail.com ! We would be happy to receive them.
Stay tuned for our next birds.
Morten & Louise
As always, thanks to Pål Hermansen for his inspiration and permission to use text from his fantastic book: