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Has anyone ever seen a Great Tit with an orange cap on it’s head?

SharonT-1837351877
05/07/2019 10:48
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Hi, first time posting. I have a pair of Great Tits that come together onto my feeder. One has the regular all black head but the other has a very bright burnt orange coloured cap on it’s head, is this unusual as I’ve never seen it before? I’ve done some research online and can’t find any information that this is a colour variation. I even started to doubt it is a Great Tit! Though I’m fairly sure it is. I’ve spent ages trying to get a photo of it but failed. Then I’ve just managed to video it, though it’s not great quality I’m afraid. 

**added...I’ve realised the video is squashed and shows nothing so have paused it and screen shotted, hopefully that will show up clearly enough.

Many thanks in advance of any help.

  • 0 05/07/2019 20:20
    Sorry Jim, I really didn't intend to undermine you - I thought were joking. As you say stranger things have happened so who knows how this Great Tit got its orange forehead.

    ____________________________________________________________________

    Tony

    My Flickr Photostream 

  • 0 09/07/2019 18:30 in reply to TeeJay
    Hi Tony, I thought you maybe interested in the outcome of me contacting the BTO about this as a result of your suggestion. This was the email reply I got. Mystery solved!
    Thanks again for your help :)

    Dear Sharon,

    Thank you very much for your e-mail and for filling in the Abnormal Plumage Survey about the Great Tit in your garden. Looking at the bird, it seems to have an element of erythrism in it's plumage. This occurs when a chestnut-red pigment replaces certain other pigments in it's feathering. Unfortunately, there isn't anything specific about this phenomena on the BTO website. However, if you search on Google for it, you can find the following information:

    www.google.com/search

    I hope that helps and we hope that you continue to enjoy watching the birds in your garden.

    With best wishes,

    David White

    Supporter Team

    garden.ecology@bto.org
  • 0 09/07/2019 18:40
    Thanks for the feedback, Sharon. The BTO are pretty good at responding to queries and coming up with an answer. Well done for submitting your photo.
    We are quite familiar with leucism (a loss of pigment which produces white patches) in birds but I don't think I've come across erythrism before. Looking at the link it seems it's more prevalent in mammals and insects rather than birds.
    Nice to have a mystery solved.

    ____________________________________________________________________

    Tony

    My Flickr Photostream 

  • 0 09/07/2019 18:49
    Yes, I read up on their website about leucism. I have actually got a blackbird that comes and it has white patches on it, so I learnt something about that too, as hadn’t heard of it before.

    Very interesting all round!
  • 0 08/07/2022 19:24
    Hello Sharron we have a Great tit visiting our garden as of today 8/ 7/ 2022 witch was a orange cap on its head & it is a colour of its small feathers because it was raining at the time if it was anything else it would have washed off it was coming & going to our bird nuts & i have about eight pictures of it over the last week .
  • 0 08/07/2022 20:43
    Rain ? Not seen any for 3 days now predicted drought in N Yorkshire !!

    Pete

    Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can