Periparus ater
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The coal tit (Periparus ater) is a passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is a widespread and common resident breeder in forests throughout the temperate to subtropical Palearctic, including North Africa. The black-crested tit is now included in this species.
This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. Linnaeus' primary reference was his earlier Fauna Svecica, whose pre-binomial name Parus capite nigro: vertice albo, dorso cinereo, pectore albo ("black-headed tit with white nape, ash-grey back, white breast") became Parus ater. This name – meaning "dusky-black tit" – was simply adopted from older ornithological textbooks, ultimately going back to Conrad Gessner's 1555 Historia animalium. He gave no type locality except "Europe", but his original description refers to the population inhabiting Sweden (which is consequently included in the nominate subspecies today). The current genus name, is Ancient Greek peri plus the pre-existing genus Parus. The specific ater is Latin for "dull black".
The coal tit is placed in the genus Periparus, which was formerly widely considered a subgenus of Parus... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sapporo | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 2 | Madrid | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 3 | Manchester | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 4 | Ankara | 🇹🇷 Turkey | |
| 5 | Porto | 🇵🇹 Portugal | |
| 6 | Lisbon | 🇵🇹 Portugal | |
| 7 | Dublin | 🇮🇪 Ireland | |
| 8 | Busan | 🇰🇷 South Korea | |
| 9 | Birmingham | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 10 | Seoul | 🇰🇷 South Korea |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beijing Wildlife Park | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 2 | Ueno Zoo | 🇯🇵 Japan |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Coal Tit sighting in Madrid on a given day, based on 6,792 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 17th most-seen of the 196 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February–April, June–October and December
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Coal Tit in Madrid on a given day, against about 40% in January, May and November, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Coal Tit sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 66 cities where we can rate Coal Tit sightings, Madrid ranks 2nd at about 50%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Sapporo (Japan, about 50%).
Same family: Paridae
The closest relatives of the Coal Tit that you can see in Madrid (family Paridae, Tits, Chickadees, and Titmice) are Great Tit (about 70%), Blue Tit (about 60%) and Crested Tit (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Coal Tit is recorded against all the birds logged in Madrid (6,792 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
