[photo (c) David Jirovsky, provided by BioMed Central]
As anyone in Europe knows, pairs of great tits aren’t hard to find. They’re really everywhere, if you keep an eye out for them — great tits can be found from the northern coast of Africa all the way to western central Russia, and in between. Bouncing around without a care in the world, great tits are one of the most popular and well known birds in the world. Yes, I’m talking about the birds, guys. The pretty, charismatic, if not slightly murderous birds.
Great tits have become a wonderful research model for scientists, as their widespread distribution and general lack of fear of people makes them easy study subjects. There are literally thousands of published papers looking at their ecology, behavior, genetics, and evolution. But while scientists have been studying these colorful, engaging birds for about a century, there’s still a lot to discover. Just last month, scientists from Palacky University in the Czech Republic learned something new, and incredible, about female tits: the prettier the mother, the healthier the offspring. Continue reading “Pretty great tits make better mothers”
