Marsh Tit in Maridalen

A single Marsh Tit has now proven to be very settled in Maridalen. It hangs very closely with two Willow Tits on a couple of horse fields where they feed primarily on the floor and find food in or close to piles of manure. What they are eating though I am unsure – it could either be seeds or insects (perhaps eggs). There is only a single Marsh Tit and I have now changed my previous observation from a pair to just one as I was only focused on identify and documenting one of the birds and just assumed that the bird it was with was also a Marsh Tit but seeing how close company this bird keeps with Willow Tits that assumption was only making an ass out of you and me. I also wonder whether the initial observation of two birds can stand as two as it was initially reported as an unsure record with a photo of just a single bird.

Anyways, this bird seems settled for the winter and there is clearly an abundance of natural food although once winter sets in then I expect it will move to feeders. It calls surprisingly little, or at least gives the characteristic “pitchoo” call very sparingly whereas the Willow Tits are churring away all the time. This makes initially discovering it difficult but once the Willows are found then the Marsh Tit should not be far away.

Apart from this little bit of excitement Maridalen feels quite dead. There are no flocks of finches on the fields and the lake only has a handful of expected species (Goldeneye, Goosander and Cormorant). With it being so mild there are still quite a few Fieldfares finding worms to eat on grass fields but I am clutching at straws.

The Maridalen Marsh Tit (løvmeis) anno 2025

finding some food in the horse muck

I'm not sure if it has taken a seed or an insect egg

here the Marsh Tit is feeding with a Willow Tit (granmeis) which is at the back. Note the much white and large cheek of the Willow

this had the makings of a very good comparison of the 2 species but ended up being blurry. The Marsh is closest

here the Marsh is at the back. Note also the large white wing panel of the Willow which is muck less obvious on the Marsh

Willow

the Marsh

Marsh on manure

Willow to the left and Marsh to the right

Marsh flanked by the two Willows. In this shot the Marsh seems to have an obvious white wing panel

Willow

Willow

Willow

2 of 5 Twite (bergirisk) that stopped briefly whilst I was watching the tits

this Treecreeper (trekryper) was searching for food on spruce cones which is a behaviour I cannot remember seeing before

These 5 Bullfinches were part of an all male flock of 6 birds - again something I cannot remember seeing before