Tit Quiz: The Answer

Jochen was right–or at least he reached the same conclusion I had, which if you think about it is the same thing given that I set the quiz….

The obvious sequential molt of the tail feathers makes this Great Tit an adult, and the narrow, jaggedly broken stripe on the underparts is that of a female.

This time of year you can age North American chickadees and titmice this way, too, but I don’t know of any way to distinguish the sexes in the field–average differences in the size and shape of the cap and bib in Black-capped Chickadee, for example, are apparently obscured by individual variation.