Great Tit

The Great Tit  is a pas serine bird in the tit family Parricide. It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central and Northern Asia, and parts of North Africa in any sort of woodland. It is generally resident, and most Great Tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters. Until 2005 this species was lumped with numerous other subspecies. DNA studies have shown these other subspecies to be distinctive from the Great Tit and these have now been separated as two separate species the Erroneous Tit of southern Asia, and the Japanese Tit of East Asia. The Great Tit remains the most widespread species in the genus Paris.The Great Tit is a distinctive bird with a black head and neck, prominent white cheeks, olive upper parts and yellow underparts, with some variation among st the numerous subspecies. It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer but will consume a wider range of food items in the winter months, including small hibernating bats. Like all tits it is a cavity neater usually nesting in a hole in a tree. The female lays around 12 eggs and incubates them alone although both parents raise the chicks. In most years the pair will raise two broods. The nests may be raided by woodpeckers, squirrels and weasels and infested with fleas, and adults may be hunted by Sparrowhawks. The Great Tit has adapted well to human changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks and gardens. The Great Tit is also an important study species in ornithology.The Great Tit was formerly treated as ranging from Britain to Japan and south to the islands of Indonesia, with 36 described subspecies ascribed to four main species groups. The major group had 13 subspecies across Europe, temperate Asia and north Africa, the minor group's nine subspecies occurred from southeast Russia and Japan into northern southeast Asia and the 11 subspecies in the cinereus group were found from Iran across south Asia to Indonesia. The three parenthesis subspecies were often treated as a separate species Purus book harensis the Turkestan Tit. This form was once thought to form a ring species around the Tibetan Plateau, with gene flow throughout the subspecies, but this theory was abandoned when sequences of mitochondrial DNA were examined, finding that the four groups were distinct  and that the hybridization zones between the groups were the result of secondary contact after a temporary period of isolation.
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