Long-tail Tit – Aegithalos caudatus rosaceus

The Long-tail Tit is a very popular bird in the UK but In actual fact it isn't a tit at all and is not related, to the other familar European Tit species. It is in fact related to the more exotic "bush-tits" and some ornithologists in other countries accurately use the name Long-tail Bushtit. There are 19 sub-species, all spread over the Northern Hemisphere and the one that we have here in the UK is unique to us and is of the sub-species rosaceus. ( There is another sub-species found in western France and the Channel Islands so stricty speaking, this isn't true). There are several behavioural facts about this bird that indicate it's difference to the true tit species, that is, the Blue Tits, Great Tits and Marsh Tits etc. Firstly Long-tail tits are not hole nesters and consequently will not use a nest box under any circumstance. When you see them in the winter, they will always be in small flocks which is a family group…. a breeding pair and their youngsters from the previous breeding season. This group can include adults that may have co-operated in the rearing of the brood. They remain together in this group until the following spring when they splt up in to breeding pairs. This seems odd to my mind as surely a large degree of inbreeding is likely with this strategy? This is a tiny bird with a tail longer than the body, it is thought that they remain together in a group because communal roosting is a way of maintaining body temperature during the long and cold winter nights. This behaviour of communal roosting allows them to exist in northerly lattitudes in cold northern winters. Other birds such as Wrens and Wagtails are also known to communally roost. Having said that they are not hole nesters it is likely that they will use a hole to roost. Today, even though the weather was a typically dull and dreary day I did manage to get some photographs, due in no small part to my really superb Pentax K3 which is capable of good photographs in poor light.