Blue Tits at the Feeder (gouache style)

The blue tit is a small, busy bird with a blue cap, wings and tail, a white face crossed by a dark eye stripe, and yellow underparts. It's one of the commonest visitors to British feeders. Outside the breeding season blue tits often join mixed flocks with great tits, coal tits and long-tailed tits, moving through gardens and woodland together. Light and agile, they'll happily hang upside down to reach food that heavier birds can't.

In winter, offer sunflower hearts, peanuts in a mesh feeder and suet, and keep a shallow dish of fresh water out when ponds freeze. Clean feeders regularly and move them every so often, so disease doesn't build up underneath. Roses that carry hips, such as dog rose or Rosa rugosa, feed other birds too, including blackbirds and thrushes: if you want hips, stop deadheading once the main summer flush is over. Autumn is a good time to put up a nest box with a 25mm entrance hole.

Two blue tits share a hanging seed feeder in a frosty garden, with red rose hips nearby. The frost sets the season and the hips bring the one warm colour into it. This is a familiar winter sight, chosen because cold days are when feeders matter most and every bird is making the most of the short daylight.