Coal Tit – Periparus ater
How lucky were we to have a holiday apartment with trees and bird feeders of the landlady just outside our window?! And a wonderful week of pure sunshine – the Wild West of Switzerland called Jura was just great!
We observed four different tits of which the Coal Tit (Periparus ater – Tannenmeise) is the one we don’t see normally in town. They are smaller and more grayish than the Great Tit. The white spot on the back of their head and the dots on the wings are very distinct.
I just realized that there is another small bird-name-language-confusion here (here is the confusion with Gull names):
English: “Great Tit” is in German “Kohlmeise” – that means “Coal Tit”
English: “Coal Tit” is in German “Tannenmeise” – that means “Fir Tit”
Dreamfalcon 
These look like a cross between a chickadee and a nuthatch–the common names in the States. Don’t know that we have the bird pictured.
he’s a cutie – great series!
Pretty little bird! In my country (Turkey) it is called “Çam Bastankarasi” which means “Pine Tree Tit”.
Have a nice Sunday, ciao! 🙂
The coal tits are so sweet. Don’t get to see them often.
Great shots of the Coal Tit. How lucky you were for having the trees and feeders.
Wonderful series! Such pretty little birds. Looks like sunflower seeds are their food of choice. A joy to view!
Very cute little birds. Name changes in English are bad enough but to try to keep track between languages!!! Wow!!!
Lovely photos and sounds like a great holiday. This bird reminds me of our Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus).
…a beautiful series of photos! My sister-in-law gave me a German bird guide last year and I was noticing those differences…the Coal Tit is especially confusing!
and it has the cute little crest too. 🙂
Excellent series of the Coal Tit Natalie. I especially like the shot with the crest up (if that is a crest)!