Long-Tailed Tit
Key facts
Scientific name: Aegithalos caudatus
Status: Resident breeding species
Breeding pairs: 340,000 territories
Conservation status: Green
Length: 14 cm
Wingspan: 16 – 19 cm
Weight: 7 – 10 g
Description
Long-tailed tits have black upper mantles and a pink rump mottled with black and white. Their upperwing coverts are black and their greater coverts have white edges. They have pinkish underparts with black streaks and paler bellies. As their name suggests the long-tailed tits tail is much longer than its body and is particularly noticeable during flight. It is mainly black with white tips.
Long-tailed tits have a wide pink band on the top of their heads, the sides of their heads are black and their chin, throat and cheeks are pink with a black wash.
Long-tailed tits have a short black bill, black eyes with red eyelids and black legs and feet.
Male and female long-tailed tits look similar. Juveniles are darker than the adults with a shorter, browner tail and dusky face.
Nesting
Both male and female long-tailed tits build their nests about 3 metres above the ground in a thorny bush or the fork of a tree. It is an oval cup like structure made from moss, spider webs covered in lichen. The interior is lined with feathers.
Long-tailed tits lay 6-15 white eggs spotted with red which are incubated by the female for 12-18 days. The male feeds the female while she is incubating. Chicks are fed by both adults and leave the nest at 14-18 days
Feeding
Long-tailed tits eat mainly insects and spiders. In winter they will supplement their diet with seeds and buds. They also drink sap.
Where to see them
Long-tailed tits can be found throughout the UK except the very north and east of Scotland. They can be seed in woodland, hedgerows, scrubland, parks and gardens. During winter they will form flocks with other species of tits.
Listen
Vincent Pourchaire/xeno-canto
Did you know?
If nest failure occurs long-tailed tits may not try to re-nest but instead will become helpers at a nest of a usually related pair of birds, ensuring a greater chance of the juveniles surviving.