Chirpy ball of feathers makes its presence felt
With its lollipop shape, the Long-tailed tit is a charming visitor to the winter garden as it searches for food
“coy bumbarrels twenty in a drove, flit down the hedgerows in the frozen plain, and hang on little twigs and start again”
John Clare, ‘Emmonsail’s Heath in Winter’
ON A GREY winter’s afternoon, the hedgerow along the edge of an arable field is empty. There is no sound; no movement at all. Then, in the distance, comes a series of high-pitched sounds, getting closer and closer, followed by rapid, jerky movements, as a flock of tiny birds bounces from twig to twig, constantly calling to keep in touch with one another.
They are Long-tailed tits, one of the smallest and lightest of all Britain’s birds, and this is a feeding flock, continuously searching for the minuscule insects on which they feed. The calls are made so that the birds can keep together, enabling them to hunt as a tight-knit pack and so, maximise the chances of getting enough energy to stay alive that night. It is likely that this is a family group: adults and youngsters from the brood that hatched out the previous spring. Larger parties of 20 or 30 birds often consist of three or four families.
Elsewhere, in woods, parks and gardens all over lowland Britain, flocks of Long-tailed tits are also searching for food. Being so small and light, they need to eat between one third and one half of their body weight every single day, just to get enough energy to survive. As a result, these birds are constantly in motion, their eyes looking out for morsels they can grab with their tiny beaks. If there is no food in one place, they will rapidly move on.
Tiny stature
At 5½in (14cm) long, Long-tailed tits are similar in size to a Great tit or House sparrow. But half their length is made up by their tail, which measures up to 3½in (9cm). As a result, they weigh far less than either of these species, with an adult Long-tailed tit weighing just 0.3oz (8g), compared with up to 0.6-0.7oz (18-19g) for the Great tit and 1.2oz (34g) for the sparrow. Of all the common British breeding birds, only the Goldcrest weighs less; even though wrens are much shorter, they are 1-2g heavier.
Adult Long-tailed tits are a pleasing mixture of subtle, yet striking, colours and patterns. The plumage is dark brown, cream and pink above, and pale pinkish-white below, with a distinctive dark stripe running from the base of the bill, above the eye, to the nape. The bill is short and stubby, and the eyes dark and beady, contrasting with the pale face. Male and female are alike, but young birds appear darker and less colourful before they moult into adult plumage the autumn after they fledge.
The Long-tailed tit may be long and slender, but its wings are short and rounded; ideal for flitting from place to place through dense bushes or other foliage. With their large, rounded head and long, thin tail, they have been described as ‘looking like flying lollipops’ when in the air. The tail does not just give the species its common English name: the scientific name, Aegithalos caudatus, also means ‘long-tailed tit’. But despite this, they are not true tits at all and are more closely related to the American bushtits.
Varied habitats
In Britain, this is mainly a bird of low-altitude areas, being absent from most of the Scottish Highlands and offshore island groups, such as the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland. They are generally sedentary, roving around their feeding territories during the winter, often in the company of other small birds, such as tits, nuthatches and treecreepers. Globally, Long-tailed tits are found throughout Europe, from Scandinavia to the shores of the Mediterranean and across the whole of Central Asia to Japan. With such a large range, they are not considered threatened. Birds from the north of the species’ range have pure white heads, and very occasionally turn up on the east coast of Britain in autumn.
Like many small songbirds, they are fairly adaptable: they are able to live along the edge of woodland, in areas of scrub,
along farm hedgerows, in suburban cemeteries and town parks, and, more recently, in gardens. Their shift to manmade habitats may be the result of a decline in hedges because of intensive farming. Since the Second World War, hedgerows have been destroyed at an alarming rate, with more than 8,000 miles being lost every year.
Long-tailed tits make a limited variety of sounds. The commonest call is a thin, high-pitched ‘see-see-see’, interspersed with an occasional brief single note. They are rarely heard to sing as such; the song is simply a longer version of the bird’s call. Like other small birds that form flocks in autumn and winter, they are particularly vocal at this time of year, calling constantly to stay in contact.
Family helpers
As well as being sociable in autumn and winter, Long-tailed tits are unusual in that they continue this sociability in spring and summer too. They indulge in what scientists call ‘co-operative breeding’, in which other birds, whose own breeding attempt might have failed, help out a nesting pair to raise their single brood of young. The helpers are normally relatives of the main pair and are often the previous year’s offspring.
In spring and summer, they eat and feed their chicks on a range of tiny insects and other invertebrates, including flies, spiders, beetles and caterpillars, as well as the eggs and pupae of butterflies and moths. In winter, they usually switch to a more varied diet, including some seeds, though they prefer invertebrate food.
They are fairly early breeders, starting as soon as February or March and usually finishing the whole process by late April or early May. The monogamous pair build a distinctive domed nest, shaped rather like a small rugby ball, 40in-6ft (1-2m) off the ground, and often in thorny bushes, such as brambles or gorse; in climbing plants, such as ivy, honeysuckle or clematis; or in the foliage of a blackthorn or hawthorn. This complex structure can take up to three weeks to build.
The nest is made from moss bound together with spider webs and hair, and then covered with lichens. Once the outer part is complete, the birds line the interior with up to 1,500 tiny feathers. The structure is flexible, allowing interior space to expand as the chicks grow. The unusual nest has given rise to several other folk names, including feather poke, bush oven, bottle tit, and bumbarrel, the latter featuring in several works by the 19th century poet John Clare.
Once the nest-building is finished, the female lays a clutch of six to eight tiny eggs, which are mainly white, with fine reddish speckles, especially at the larger end. The eggs each weigh just 0.9g,
“bumbarrels make a nest Of mosses grey with cobwebs closely tied And warm and rich as feather-bed within, With little hole on its contrary side”
John Clare, ‘Bumbarrel’s Nest’
making them smaller than any British species, apart from those of the Goldcrest. They are incubated by the female for 15-18 days, with the male bringing back food at regular intervals.
When the chicks hatch, like other small birds, they are naked, blind and helpless; termed as ‘altricial’. Over the next couple of weeks, their eyes open, and their feathers begin to grow. They are fed by the male, female and any helpers, then fledge and leave the nest after another 16 or 17 days. Only one in four makes it this far, but those that do survive will stay with their parents until the following spring, when they will breed for the first time. Like most small birds, Long-tailed tits rarely survive beyond the age of two, so this may be their only chance to raise a family. However, they can live far longer, the record being almost nine years.
Long-tailed tits fall victim to a wide range of predators, especially domestic cats, sparrowhawks, crows, magpies and jays; the latter two species also predating their nests if they can gain entry.
They are very vulnerable to prolonged cold and snowy weather in winter, as they are unable to gain access to their food resources if temperatures drop below freezing. True to their sociable nature, they may also be found roosting together, huddled up in a row along a branch to keep warm or, in extreme weather, seeking refuge in a nest box.
In long, hard winters, such as that of 1962-63, the population may drop by up to 90 per cent, but numbers usually bounce back after two or three successful breeding seasons.
There are approximately 400,000 breeding pairs of Long-tailed tits in the UK, and the population is stable, giving the species a ‘green’ rating for Birds of Conservation Concern. Like other small resident bird species, they are likely to benefit in the short and medium term from climate change, especially if mild winters become the norm. However, changes in habitat in the longer term could make them vulnerable.
Long-tailed tits are not perhaps as familiar with the general public as they deserve to be. But their more recent habit of visiting gardens will hopefully mean that this enchanting little bird will finally gain the recognition it is worthy of.
“The reason birds can fly and we can’t is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings”
J M Barrie, The Little White Bird