Long-tailed Tit Life History

Habitat

Long-tailed Tits are birds of woodlands, scrubby areas, gardens, parks, and farmland hedgerows—essentially any place with trees or bushes. Nesting birds are most successful in bushes and hedgerows outside of woodlands. During the winter and early spring, Long-tailed Tit flocks often roam deciduous woodlands, focusing on different tree species (oak, ash, and sycamore) as spring progresses. While they do spend time in backyards and gardens, Long-tailed Tits are often just passing through—they are less likely to approach homes and visit bird feeders than Great Tit, Eurasian Blue Tit, and Coal Tit.

Food

Long-tailed Tits feed primarily on insects and spiders, with bugs (Hemiptera), caterpillars, and moth/butterfly eggs often favored items. They explore tree canopies and the tops of bushes for food, hopping along branches, hanging upside-down from twigs, and switching trees every few minutes. They sometimes join Eurasian Blue Tits (and other tits) in mixed-species flocks, but unlike that species, Long-tailed Tits rarely forage on the ground.

Nesting

Nest Placement

Long-tailed Tits typically build their nests less than 3 meters (10 feet) off the ground, but some birds nest in treetops up to 35 meters (115 feet) high. Nests are built within thorny bushes or placed on tree forks or against trunks.

Nest Description

Nest is a large, slightly oval, domed structure made of moss, cobwebs, and hair, giving it some elasticity. Both sexes build the nest, lining the interior with small feathers and decorating the exterior with lichen and bark to camouflage it.

Nesting Facts

Behavior

Long-tailed Tits are noisy, restless, and social birds. They call frequently, and often flick their wings and tail. In the winter, they form family-based foraging flocks that range in size from 3 to 30 birds. At night, these winter flocks roost communally to stay warm, with birds packed tightly together, side by side, along a horizontal branch. Winter flocks are territorial, but multiple flocks sometimes join together to form large groups that can reach 300 individuals.

With their round bodies and extremely long tails, Long-tailed Tits have a distinctive “blob and line” flight silhouette. Their rapid wingbeats create a whirring sound, but at times these tits appear to struggle to stay aloft. When a Long-tailed Tit foraging flock reaches an opening in the vegetation, the birds call excitedly and “follow the leader”: a lead bird crosses the clearing, followed by another, and then another, until one at a time, all the birds make the crossing.

Long-tailed Tits form monogamous pairs, but cooperative breeding, in which helpers assist breeding pairs, is common. These helpers are typically related to the nesting male and have failed in their own nesting efforts for the breeding season. Both sexes build the elaborately domed nest in about 2–4 weeks. The female is responsible for all incubation and most brooding. Both sexes, plus any helpers at the nest, feed the nestlings and fledglings.

Conservation

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists Long-tailed Tit’s conservation status as Least Concern due to an extremely large range, stable population trend, and extremely large population size (estimated at 40–80 million individuals).

Credits

BirdLife International. 2016. Aegithalos caudatus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T103871923A87471081. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T103871923A87471081.en.

Cramp, S., and C. M. Perrins (1993). The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume 7. Flycatchers to Shrikes. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

Harrap, S. (2020). Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.lottit1.01

Jonsson, L. (1992). Birds of Europe: with North Africa and the Middle East. Christopher Helm, London, United Kingdom.

Svensson, L., K. Mullarney, and D. Zetterström (2009). Collins Bird Guide. Second edition. HarperCollins, London, UK.

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