The birds are famed for their acrobatic skills, as they can hold on to the outermost branches of trees and shrubs and hang upside down when looking for food.

[4] Two centuries earlier, before the introduction of the binomial nomenclature, the same Latin name had been used by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner when he described and illustrated the blue tit in his Historiae animalium of 1555.

[5] In 2005, analysis of the mtDNA cytochrome b sequences of the Paridae indicated that Cyanistes was an early offshoot from the lineage of other tits, and more accurately regarded as a genus rather than a subgenus of Parus.

Such birds can look like azure, but with less white on the tail and a bit of yellow on the chest or like blue tit but with whiteish bottom.

The underparts are mostly Sulphur-yellow with a dark line down the abdomen—the yellowness is indicative of the number of yellowy-green caterpillars eaten, due to high levels of carotene pigments in the diet.

The sexes are similar and often indistinguishable to human eyes, but under ultraviolet light, males have a brighter blue crown.

[17] The Eurasian blue tit and the related hybrids are considered native species in areas of the European continent with a mainly temperate or Mediterranean climate, and in parts of the Middle East.

These areas include Ireland, the United Kingdom and most of the European Union and EFTA (except Malta, where they are considered vagrant, and Iceland, where they are absent), plus: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City and Ukraine.

This is a common and popular European garden bird, due to its perky acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or suet.

During the nestling period, both female nest attendance and male feeding rate are higher in the morning, declining throughout the day.

[22]A study found that the timing of breeding in blue tits is related to the expression of nestling carotenoid‐based coloration, which could play a role in offspring–parent communication.

They use alarm-calls to warn others (including birds of other species such as the great tit, the European robin or the treecreeper) about the presence of predators in the neighbourhood.

The alarm-whistle warns other birds about the proximity of a Eurasian sparrowhawk, a northern goshawk, a common buzzard or other flying predators that form a potential danger in the air.

An interesting example of culturally transmitted learning in birds was the phenomenon dating from the 1920s of blue tits teaching one another how to open traditional British milk bottles with foil tops, to get at the cream underneath.

[34] In addition, the instinct to strip bark from trees in search of insects has developed into a tendency to peel building materials such as thatch, wallpaper, stucco and window putty.

Breeding seasons may be affected badly if the weather is cold and wet between May and July, particularly if this coincides with the emergence of the caterpillars on which the nestlings are fed.

P. stylifer lives all its developmental stages, i.e. egg, larva, protonymph, tritonymph and adult, within the plumage of the same host.

The usual sites where P. stylifer is encountered are the remiges and the rectrices of the bird where they can be found tandemly positioned between the barbs of the rachis.