Tits, Chickadees and Titmice: Family Paridae

Members of the family Paridae are a diverse family of relatively small birds, native to North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Parids come in many shapes and colors, but are typically on the small and plump side of the spectrum, sometimes with a mohawk-like crest. These birds are generalists when it comes to feeding, and will commonly eat both seeds and insects. The beaks of the parids vary according to what they predominantly eat, more granivorous chickadees have a stouter bill, while more insectivorous birds have a thinner, sharper bill. They are commonly called Tits in Europe, and Chickadees in North America, and despite their size, are among the smartest birds on Earth.

Biological Alarm System

If you have the pleasure of walking through the woods with a very good naturalist, they will often tell you what the birds are saying to each other. Most of the time they are just defending their territory or trying to attract a female. Sometimes, though, you will hear an alarm call, which can tell the seasoned naturalist that danger is near, or that you yourself are the dangerous being. Tits and Chickadees are among these birds that make up the forest-wide alarm system.

Chickadees are easy to regonize because they say their own name ("Chick-a-dee-dee-dee"). If you listen for the amount of "dees" at the end of their call, you can get an idea of how alarmed they are by the approaching danger! Check out Cornell Labs Bird Pages to hear their voices, so the next time you're exploring the woods around you, you can hear their alarm.

Saving Cache

Many parids have an enlarged hippocampus region of their brain, the area responsible for memory. These birds will often hide, or 'cache', their food, sometimes hundreds of small meals per day, and their enhanced memory allows them to remember where they hid all their snacks. Not all parids hide their food, but the ones that do generally are able to maintain a larger body size while living in habitats that sometimes don't produce a lot of food.

Taxonomy and Evolution

This is a relatively older group of birds, having evolved around 20-30 million years ago, in Eurasia. Because they have had to much time to radiate, they have moved form their original Old World origins and spread to most northern latitudes, and Africa. There are 9 genera and 51 species of Parids. Genera include:

Genus Poecile
Genus Periparus
Genus Lophophanes
Genus Baeolophus
Genus Parus
Genus Pseudopodoces
Genus Cyanistes
Genus Sylviparus
Genus Melanochlora