Sweden has Great Tits!

Photo: Luc Viatour, Wikipedia

Parus major, that is... the great tit most common bird here in Umeå. The Swedish word for the great tit is "Talgoxe", but perhaps the English word speaks more to their sexual behaviour: while the great tits are socially monogomous and establish breeding pairs, these birds are customary cuckholders. One study found that up to 40% of the nests that were sampled contained offspring from a different male than the father, and 8.5% of chicks are (forgive the anthropomorphism) 'bastard birds' (Strohbach et al. 1998 Behavioural Ecology 9: 388–396).

Carrie snapped this shot at the birdfeeder near our home:


Here are some of the other birds we've found to be common here in Umeå (we even have magpies!):

English common name	Swedish common name	Latin name
Great Tit	Talgoxe	Parus major
Blue Tit	Blåmes	Parus caeruleus
Eurasian Bullfinch	Domherre	Pyrrhula pyrrhula
Fieldfare	Björktrast (Birch thrush)	Turdus pilaris
European Magpie	Skata	Pica pica
Commoon Blackbird	Koltrast (Coal thrush)	Turdus merula
Yellowhammer	Gulsparv (Yellow sparrow)	Emberiza citrinella
Eurasian Tree Sparrow	Pilfink (Arrow finch)	Passer montanus
Brambling	Bergfink (Mountain finch)	Fringilla montifringilla
European Greenfinch	Grönfink (Green finch)	Carduelis chloris

And here are a few more shots of the winter from this past weekend.

Björk(birch) near Nydala lake (Nydalasjön)

All hands: storming the sea at the beach at Nydalasjön