Marsh Tit

Days holiday today and entertaining at lunch. And then the day was nearly gone and no picture. So whilst walking Karen’s dog Tanzy at around the livery yard, spotted this we fella a fair way away across the field.

This is a small, mainly brown bird, with a shiny black cap, dark 'bib' and pale belly. In the UK its identification is made tricky by the very similar appearance of our race of willow tit. They're so hard to identify that ornithologists didn't realise there were two species until 1897!

If I have identified this bird correctly they don’t often come this far north in Scotland.