Great tit with no yellow, and day-glo greenfinches?!

Question

Hello, 
 I'm new here, and don't have any pictures to post just yet but hoping someone can help. 
 I have a bird table with many visitors including blue tits, great tits and long-tailed tits. Today I've seen what seems to be a great tit but has a white chest and grey back (i.e. not yellow chested with green/blue back). Is this just a variation in colouring? 
 We also have greenfinches that look fluorescent yellow in flight. My husband insists they're 'wild canaries'. 
 Is there something in the water around here??

aiki · Answer

Hi there, 
 The carotenoid pigments that give Great Tits their yellow tummies (and green backs) is derived from diet, so it's possible this Great Tit's either a) not eaten enough foods containing carotenoids or b) has a defect of some kind that means it can't process its carotenoids properly. Great Tits do vary a lot in colour intensity, even the same individual will be brighter at some times of year than others (and males are brighter than females anyway) but if your bird is completely monochrome, I'd be favouring option b. The fact that your local Greenfinches are clearly having no trouble finding carotenoid-rich foods would support that idea too! 
 ETA - just saw your last message. Willow Tits are very rare in Oxfordshire, so on distribution Marsh Tit is more likely, but you never know! Any photos? The species names are misleading, by the way - Willow Tit has no special tie to willows, and is often found in damper habitat than Marsh Tit.

Sunbird24 · Answer

Hi all, I just joined this forum because I just saw the same coloured bird here in my garden in Spain! Having travelled a lot I can tell you that there is a sub-species of Great Tit which has no yellow, Parus major ambiguus. It is more of an Asian race than a European race but I would not rule it out entirely, nor am I saying that yours or mine is this one, it is just another possibility. I did take pictures of mine but they are at the back of a rather large queue at the moment.

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Martii · Answer

Hi strange you mention this I have the same question, recently noticed I have two regular visitors to my feeder exact same discriotion of bird looks to be very black head with a very distinctive black stripe down their chest over a whit body with greyish whit wings, anybody know what they are, Glasgow UK

Martii · Answer

It seems from older threads that these are coal tits wit an unusual pale colouring hope this helps