One of 14 birds encoutered this am at Cabinteely park
Via Flickr:
Long-tailed Tits are delightful birds to encounter, swinging through the trees in tight noisy groups. Their appearance, like a tiny, fluffy ball with a great long black and white tail is quite unmistakable. Breeds in dense vegetation on woodland edges, scrubby thickets and hedgerows. Occurs more widely in winter including woods and gardens. The constant calls of Long-tailed Tits are to help the flock stay together. If one bird gets separated from the rest of the flock, the others will double-back to 'rescue' it. This means that if you can imitate their calls you can attract a flock to within a few feet of you and it also explains why ringers sometimes find that a mist-net full of Long-tailed Tits often contains birds which have entered from both directions. This apparent 'care' for the well-being of other members of the flock is almost certainly related to the fact that many flocks are in fact family parties of closely-related individuals.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus)
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I like to call them the 'corps de ballet' of the wintergarden.
ReplyDeleteA couple of weeks ago, I was in my garden with my husband, and we stood talking along the hedge, when suddenly a flock of longg-tailed tits landed there only a few meters away from us. They stayed there quite some time... it was pure magic...