From Opus

Nominate
Photo by alex_2301
Moscow, Russia

Alternative name: Long-tailed Bushtit

Aegithalos caudatus

Includes: Silver-throated Tit

[edit] Identification

Very often will give the impression of a small fluffy circular ball with a long tail attached. Approximately 14 cm (5.5 inches) of which more than half constitutes its tail. Black and rosy-beige above and white below, with rosy-beige flanks. It has a white crown but populations differs in amount of black in head. Bill is very short.

Subspecies rosaceus
Photo by Andy Bright
Hertfordshire, England

Juvenile/immature is darker and less glossy, lack rosy colors, and right after fledging, the tail is shorter.

[edit] Distribution

Europe and Asia but not in tropical areas.

[edit] Taxonomy

Vinaceus and glaucogularis from China are sometimes considered a full species, Silver-throated Tit (Aegithalos glaucogularis).

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

Nineteen to twentytwo subspecies are recognized by different authors:

• A. c. rosaceus: :British Isles
• A. c. caudatus: Scandinavia and north-eastern Europe to Siberia, northern China, Korea and Japan
• A. c. aremoricus: Western France, Channel Islands and ÃŽle d'Yeu
• A. c. taiti: Southern and south-western France to north-western Spain and Portugal
• A. c. irbii: Southern Spain, Portugal and Corsica
• A. c. europaeus: France and Germany to northern Italy, western Romania and northern Bulgaria
• A. c. italiae: Mainland Italy and Yugoslavia
• A. c. siculus: Sicily
• A. c. macedonicus: Albania, Yugoslavia, Greece and southern Bulgaria
• A. c. tauricus: Southern Crimean Peninsula
• A. c. tephronotus: Asia Minor
• A. c. major: Caucasus to western and central Transcaucasia
• A. c. alpinus: South-eastern Azerbaijan to northern Iran and south-western Turkmenistan

Photo by Chocky
Exmouth, Devon, March 2011

• A. c. passekii: Zagros Mountains (sw Iran)
• A. c. glaucogularis: Central China (mountains of western Sichuan to Yangtze delta)
• A. c. vinaceus: Northern and western China (Liaoning to Gansu, Qinghai and northern Yunnan)
• A. c. magnus: Southern Korea and Tsushima Island (Kamino-shima and Shimono-shima)
• A. c. trivirgatus: Japan (Honshu, Awa-shima, Sado and Oki); Cheju-Do Island (Korea)
• A. c. kiusiuensis: Southern Japanese islands (Shikoku, Kyushu and Yakushima)

[edit] Habitat

Deciduous woodlands with undergrowth.

Also wetland reed beds

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Flight

Flight is short, whirring bursts and drops. Looks like a bouncing ball of fluff with a tail. Usually in flocks playing follow-my-leader from one patch of cover to another.

Seldom stays still for long, flitting about within a bush, chasing insects.

[edit] Breeding

Woven nests containing spider webs and lichen are built in a tree or shrub. Up to a dozen eggs per litter.

[edit] Diet

Diet includes insects

[edit] Vocalisation

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Wikipedia
3. Beaman, M., S. Madge, K.M. Olsen. 1998. Fuglene i Europa, Nordafrika og Mellemøsten. Copenhagen, Denmark: Gads Forlag, ISBN 87-12-02276-4

[edit] External Links