Great Tit

The second new bird (for me) on our recent trip to Germany was a great tit. I first saw one in Nuremberg fluffing itself in water by the river as I watched above from a bridge. The second time I saw one was on Wallberg, in Pforzheim, a hill made out of the rubble from the bombing of Pforzheim in 1945. I came down early from the top, which has a monument, and watched for birds from a bench. A great tit flew into a tree and I got a photo before it quickly flew again. 

The great tit is large for a tit. There are 15 subspecies and I saw the nominate subspecies, Parus major major, which is found through much of Europe, Asia Minor, northern and eastern Kazakhstan, southern Siberia and northern Mongolia.  The nominate subspecies has a blue-black crown; black neck, throat, bib and head, white cheeks and ear coverts, a yellow breast and a black midline strip running from the bib to vent. A white spot on the neck turns to green-yellow on the upper nape and the rest of the nape and back are green tinged with olive. The female plumage is similar to the male, but the colors are duller and the bib is less intensely black, as is the line running down the belly, which is also narrower and sometimes broken. 

The first three photos were taken in Nuremberg.

This photo was taken in Pforzheim.

This illustration is of the male of the subspecies, P. m. major, from Birds of the World. 

This is an illustration of the female, of the same subspecies, from Birds of the World. 

This is a range map from Birds of the World.