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Crested tit

 

 

To start with, outside the office window of Loodusemees (photographer Arne Ader, a.k.a. Mr. Birdfeeder) the food table has been set for the birds already from the beginning of December, and the camera is installed too. Web transmission will start when snow arrives – after all in Otepää, the winter capital, the snow must come.

 

Only very rarely we meet crested tits at a bird feeding table. An encounter is more likely if there are conifer forests near where we live, especially pine forests. Crested tits are very stationary, and can spend their whole life in only one small forest area; young birds make minor excursions in the beginning of winter. They are not really few – around a quarter of a million wintering birds. Crested tits are very seldom found in the Estonian islands.

 

Adult crested tits have a black-white-patterned crest; such an ornament other tits don’t have. They can also move the crest according to mood. Unusually for passerines, the eyes are reddish-brown; on the paler cheeks the black eyestreak is evident. A black collar starts from under the black beak. The plumage is similar for all: back and tail brown, underparts paler and legs greenish gray. Length more than ten centimetres and weight over 10 grams.

 

A quiet, thin chirruping that can be heard at times in a pine and even in a spruce forest may belong to crested tits. The birds have collected stores for winter in bark crevices, and so they are busy there.

 

Crested tit observations: LINK