Species of the Month

Weighing in at 9g (the weight of a £1 coin) and measuring only 14 cm in length with a wingspan of 18 cm, the long-tailed tit is a tiny bird with a round body. It doesn’t have much of a neck and has a white head with a wide, black eyestripe and a very short bill. The back is black, white and pink and the breast a fluffy palish pink. The wings are dark, and it has a long black and white tail which is longer than its body.

Young birds look like adults but have a black bandit mask over the face. 

The long-tailed tit is also easily identified from its high-pitched ‘see-see-see’ and short ‘thrupp’ call, as well as a bouncing flight. 

They hunt among the branches and leaves of trees in woodlands for insects, spiders and other invertebrates. The eggs and caterpillars of moths and butterflies form part of their diet, but they will also eat seeds and will often visit bird tables and feeders in gardens. 

The nests of long-tailed tits are exquisite structures which can take up to three weeks to construct, so nestbuilding often starts as early as February. The beautifully camouflaged dome-shaped nest is built in a thick bush, hedge, or the fork of a tree. It is a complete ball made from moss, lichen and spider silk and is camouflaged with lichen on the outside. It is lined with maybe 1,500 feathers and has an entrance hole at the side. The nest is soft and flexible so the young can move around inside without it collapsing. 

The female will usually lay one clutch of 8-12 eggs in March or April. She incubates them for around 15-18 days, and the chicks will fledge after around two weeks. Long-tailed tits display co-operative breeding so if a breeding pair fails, they will help at the nest of close relatives, which increases the survival rate. 

After fledging, birds from different families form flocks of around 6-20 birds which flit from tree to tree, rarely staying long and contact calling each other with their distinctive high pitched ‘see see see’ and shorter ‘thrupp’ call. 

The number of long-tailed tits has doubled since the 1970s and the species is on the Green List (not considered at risk of extinction) under the Birds of Conservation Concern 5: the Red List for Birds (2021). This is probably due to the warmer winters resulting in a higher survival rate. 

Because of their small size they are susceptible to the cold, so at night they huddle up together in a ball with their tails sticking out to keep warm. 

Nests are vulnerable to a range of predators, including corvids such as crows and jays, as well as weasels.

Long-tailed tits are found in most parts of the UK except in the mountains of Scotland. 

They live in in woodland, farmland, parks and gardens with lots of hedgerows and trees. 

Being very small, long-tailed tits are vulnerable to prolonged periods of harsh winter weather, so they need energy-rich food sources. Providing peanuts, small seeds such as nyjer and black sunflower seeds, and fat balls or suet blocks, can help them survive in the cold. Providing good nesting places such as thick, tall hedges that contain native shrubs is also a good way to help the species. 

Please avoid the use of pesticides and herbicides which kill the insects they need to survive and feed their chicks.