Aegithalos caudatus - Long-tailed Tit

A shy bird of hedgerows and copses, the long-tailed tit is a very social bird. At times in winter you will see and hear colonies of two or three dozen of these tiny tits, with their disproportionately long white-edged tails, working their way along the edge of a wood, searching for insects. They are noisy, energetic birds.

The pink-tinged body of this pretty little bird has a fluffy, somewhat untidy appearance - male and female being very similar in appearance, 15cm long and with a typical wingspan of 18cm. (There is also a northern race of long-tailed tits with all-white heads.)

Long-tailed tits build their nests in bushes, using moss, wool, feathers and spiders' webs to create a deep dome with a tiny side entrance. As many as two thousand individual feathers have been counted from one long-tailed tit nest.

A dozen chicks is a typical brood. Early nests, built before the leaves are fully out, are often robbed by jays and magpies.

Insects are the main source of food for these resident titmice.

Garden Birds... Robin Magpie Chaffinch Bullfinch Siskin Mistle thrush Fieldfare Goldfinch Jay Nuthatch Dunnock Blue tit Redwing Rook Wheatear Great tit Yellowhammer Blackbird Brambling Coal tit Jackdaw Pied wagtail Great-spotted woodpecker Willow warbler Carrion crow The Aviary

Water Birds... Canada Goose Coot Cormorant Dipper Fulmar Gannet Grey Wagtail Heron Kingfisher Mallard Moorhen Mute Swan Puffin Reed Warbler Shelduck Water Birds The Aviary

Countryside Birds... Sparrow Hawk Common Sandpiper Long-tailed Tit Swift Short-eared Owl Buzzard Dunlin Raven Rook Peregrine Falcon Swallow Common Snipe Red Kite Pied Flycatcher Redstart Golden Plover Chough Stonechat Tawny Owl Wren Barn Owl Countryside Birds... Garden Birds Water Birds The Aviary

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