Something with titta "small" and raite "hue" or laite "colour(?)".

+Ekin Gören
something with titta would be fitting since both elements in English titmouse come from words meaning 'small'.

The german Word for this kind of birds is "Meise", for the blue ones "Blaumeise. "Meise" seems to come from a old german adjektive "maisa" = small, tiny, little. So, why not call them "little blue"?

+Tamas Ferencz That's what I aimed for.
+Gabriele Gonzalez I support "little blue".

+Gabriele Gonzalez
yes, Meise comes from the same etymon as 'mouse' in titmouse.
But not all tits are blue... the blue tit is, indeed:)

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=titmouse&allowed_in_frame=0

Of course, they are not all blue. But you were describing the blue ones ;-) In German all birds of this family are called "Meise" with a addition which describes the difference. "Kohlmeise" means "charcoal titmouse". In English this bird is called "great tit". Wouldn't this work in Quenya too?

+Gabriele Gonzalez
sure.
I'd love to go for titte as a generic word for the species, although titte meant 'breast, teat' in Qenya. Not that it's a great problem.

Sry, it makes me laugh for a little moment :-D It's just funny, that in German we have a very crude word for female breast "Titte". On Parf Edhellen there are more words for "little". What's about "pitya"? For me it's sounds nice for such little birds :)

+Gabriele Gonzalez
yes of course, tit has that same meaning in English colloquial, although it is hardly considered crude these days (although certainly not Queen's English:) I just find it titillating (ha!) that Tolkien may have had the two meanings of tit in mind when inventing titta and titte.http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=tit&allowed_in_frame=0

It's just lovely to imagine, that Prof. Tolkien, such a staid and serious man, had this kind of backhanded humor. You know, that in Spanish it's a word which describes the passion of older men for very young girls = "titimanía" :-D

+Tamas Ferencz Just to add that a normal Russian name for the bird is exactly a derivative of the adjective 'blue' — of any kind. Apparently, a pan-European association.

+Александр Запрягаев all kind of tits have this name?

+Tamas Ferencz Well, every single one of the Parus genus. And Cyanistes are names after the colour 'light-blue, sky-blue'.