British Blue Tit - 1949 status

Parus caeruleus obscurus

As Great Tit, but more numerous.  Visits Skomer and Ramsey, and once Skokholm.

R.M.Lockley, G.C.S.Ingram, H.M.Salmon, 1949, The Birds of Pembrokeshire, The West Wales Field Society

Blue Tit - 2003-07

It was estimated that 24,000 pairs were nesting in Pembrokeshire at the end of the 1984-88 survey, based on a mean value of 60 pairs per occupied tetrad. This was a similar level to that of the 1988-91 National Atlas, using the calculated national average and relative abundance distribution.  

Little distributional change was apparent by the conclusion of the 2003-07 survey but the BBS indicated there had been an increase of 29% in Wales between 1994 and 2007. Accepting that a similar increase took place in the county, the population at the end of 2007 was probably about 31,000 pairs. Widespread garden feeding resulting in increased winter survival was undoubtedly a contributing factor to increased breeding numbers.

Graham Rees

Fieldwork 2003-07 (based on 490 tetrads) 

Red = breeding confirmed = 311

Orange = breeding probable = 95

Yellow = breeding possible = 23

Total tetrads in which registered = 429 (87.6%)

Blue Tit - 1994

Breeding resident

Blue Tits have been common since Mathew's (1894) time and breed in a variety of habitats, including urban areas where they utilise holes in masonry and nest-boxes, and are only absent from the tops of the Preseli Mountains and all of the offshore islands save well-wooded Caldey. Census data from the Dyfed Wildlife Trust reserves of Rosemoor, Old Mill Grounds and Pengelli Forest, suggest an average of 60 pairs per tetrad which would amount to a county total of about 24,000 pairs.

They are eruptive in some autumns, like Coal Tits, and flocks are seen wandering q about the open coast, some reaching the offshore islands, with up to 50 at Skokholm in October 1957 and 1964 and 85 at Skomer in October 1991.

Fieldwork 1984-88 (based on 478 tetrads) 

Red = breeding confirmed = 302

Orange = breeding probable = 54

Yellow = breeding possible = 52

Total tetrads in which registered = 408 (85.4%)

Donovan J.W. & Rees G.H (1994), Birds of Pembrokeshire

Blue Tit - 1970s breeding

Red = breeding confirmed

Orange = breeding probable

Yellow = breeding possible

Blue Tit - 1980s winter

The BTO winter atlas showed that Blue Tits were present in most 10km squares during the winters of 1981-82, 1982-82 and 1983-84.

The darker the colour, the higher the relative total count for each 10km square.  The darkest blue represents over 70 birds.  

However, it should be noted that the figures show a high correlation with the number of recording cards returned (therefore related to recording effort) for each 10km square.  

Graham Rees 

Blue Tit - 1894

Species account from M Mathew, 1894, "The Birds of Pembrokeshire and its islands"

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