Looking like a ball with a tail, long tailed tits are easily recognized with their small body, distinctive colourings, and a long tail, which can be up to 15cm in length. Both sexes are white, black, and pale pink, with unique white crowns. You’ll notice long-tailed tits most when they are in small, excitable flocks of about 40 birds. They love to swing from feeders full of balls.
Long-tailed tits have a charming family life and are leaders of nest building. Both sexes work together to create a rich and complex nest, taking around a month to build. The nest is shaped like a long bottle, usually with a carefully placed roof and a door hole near the top. They build it in a bush or the fork of a tree, from lichen, moss, and dead spider cobwebs, that can extend to include growing chicks. They add a feather lining to make the inside cozy for the hicks and eggs – as many as 2,000 feathers can be employed. Let’s explore more about these majestic birds.
- Bird Name: Long-tailed tit
- Status: Least concern
Scientific Classification:
- Phylum: Chordata
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Order: Passeriformes
- Class: Aves
- Genus: Aegithalos
- Species: A. caudatus
- Family: Aegithalidae
General Information:
The Long-tailed tit is a famous European bird. They are active birds that can be aggressive. They will roost together, which helps conserve body heat. Up to 40 birds can be grouped together at once. The large clusters are often considerably noisy.
Physical Description:
The long-tailed tit is a fluffy, small bird with a sizeable noticeable tail. The tail accounts for almost half the body length, which averages around 15 cm. A thick black band above each eye reaches back to the collar. The upper breast and even the head are otherwise white while the underparts are pink and sometimes red. It has reddish-brown shoulders with white borders to the flight feathers. The long tails are black colored and edged in white. Both sexes look similar. The young have golden-brown coloring on their heads. Geographical variations to color due occur depending on the ecosystem.
Diet:
The diet of the Long-tailed tit comprises seeds and invertebrates. Their diet consists of mainly insects, their larvae, and spiders, plus some winter seeds. In gardens where food is served to them, the species readily eat suet pellets in mesh feeders and peanuts and love suet balls and suet blocks
Habitat:
It resides in Europe but is absent from the central and northern parts of Scandinavia. Its range extends in Asia but not into Africa. It lives in deciduous and mixed woodland with a thick understory. Its nest is ball or bag shaped and usually incorporates moss, lichens and spider webs and is lined with feathers. Pair spends 2-3 weeks building the nest. It is so small their tails must curl under to fit inside.
Reproduction:
The breeding season extends from February to June. The clutch consists of 7 to 12 white eggs with reddish speckling. Incubation takes about 13 days and is done solely by the female, although the male will bring her food. Young are fed by both parents and will fledge after 14 to 18 days. If the nest is predated, adults will participate in cooperative breeding with relative birds.
