The bushtits or long-tailed tits, are a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

, Aegithalidae, of small

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

birds with long tails, compared to their size. The family contains 13

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

in three

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

, all but one of which are found in

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

. Bushtits are active birds, moving almost constantly while they forage for insects in shrubs and trees. During non-breeding season, birds live in flocks of up to 50 individuals. Several bushtit species display cooperative breeding behavior, also called

helpers at the nest Helpers at the nest is a term used in behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology to describe a social structure in which juveniles and sexually mature adolescents of either one or both sexes remain in association with their parents and help the ...

Distribution and habitat

All the Aegithalidae are forest birds, particularly forest edge and

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but abov ...

habitats. The species in the genus ''Aegithalos'' prefer

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

mixed deciduous forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally found in large, discon ...

s, while the Indonesian

pygmy bushtit The pygmy bushtit (''Aegithalos exilis'') is a species of bird in the bushtit family Aegithalidae. The species was once placed, along with the rest of its family, with the true tits, Paridae. It is endemic to Indonesia, where it occurs only on t ...

is found mostly in montane coniferous forest. Bushtits are found in a wide range of habitats, including on occasion

sagebrush steppe Sagebrush steppe is a type of shrub-steppe, a plant community characterized by the presence of shrubs, and usually dominated by sagebrush, any of several species in the genus ''Artemisia''.Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

s, and all are found in Eurasia except the

American bushtit The American bushtit (''Psaltriparus minimus'') is the only species placed in the genus ''Psaltriparus'' and the only species in the family Aegithalidae that is found in the New World. In North America, it is referred to simply as "bushtit". Tax ...

, which is native to

western North America Western North America is the western edge of the North American continent that borders the Pacific Ocean. It consists of Alaska at the farthest north, down through the western Canadian province of British Columbia, the western U.S. states of Wa ...

. The

long-tailed tit The long-tailed tit (''Aegithalos caudatus''), also named long-tailed bushtit, is a common bird found throughout Europe and the Palearctic. The genus name ''Aegithalos'' was a term used by Aristotle for some European tits, including the long-tail ...

has the most widespread distribution of any species of Aegithalidae, occurring across Eurasia from Britain to Japan. Two species, in contrast, have tiny distributions, the

Burmese bushtit The Burmese bushtit (''Aegithalos sharpei'') is a species of bird in the family Aegithalidae. It is endemic to the Chin Hills of Myanmar. Its natural habitat is temperate forests. References sooty bushtit Endemic birds of Myanmar Burm ...

, which is entirely restricted to two mountains in Burma, and the pygmy bushtit, which is restricted to the mountains of western

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

. The species in this family are generally not migratory, although the long-tailed tit is prone to dispersing in the northern edges of its range (particularly in Siberia). Many mountainous species move to lower ground during the winter.

Description

They are small birds, measuring in length, including the relatively long tail, and weighing just . Their

plumage Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...

is typically dull grey or brown, although some species have white markings and the long-tailed tit has some pinkish colour. In contrast to the rest of the family the two ''

Leptopoecile ''Leptopoecile'' is a genus of birds in the long-tailed tit family Aegithalidae. The genus was once placed in the large family Sylviidae, but analysis of mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochon ...

'' tit-warblers are quite brightly coloured, having violet and blue plumage. The crested tit-warbler is the only member of the family to have a crest. The bills in this family are tiny, short and conical in shape. The wings are short and rounded and the legs are relatively long.

Behaviour

Birds in this family live in flocks ranging from 4 to over 50 individuals. Flocks form as soon as one breeding season finishes and last until the next one begins. They maintain contact by contact calls that vary among species; their songs are quiet or nonexistent. Other species of birds, such as tits or warblers, will occasionally join the flock to forage.

Diet and feeding

Bushtits are insectivorous, primarily eating insects and other invertebrates such as leafhoppers, treehoppers, aphids, scale insects, and caterpillars. Plant material, such as berries or seeds, is taken occasionally during the winter. The family generally forages arboreally, usually in the

shrub layer Stratification in the field of ecology refers to the vertical layering of a habitat; the arrangement of vegetation in layers. It classifies the layers (sing. ''stratum'', pl. ''strata'') of vegetation largely according to the different heights to w ...

or canopy, and seldom visits the ground. Prey is generally gleaned from branches, leaves and buds. Less frequently, prey is taken in the air. While foraging, this agile family may hang upside down on branches (although this behaviour is not thought to occur in the tit-warblers) and even manipulate branches and leaves in order to locate hidden food.

Breeding

The family generally has a monogamous breeding system; however, there is some evidence that the American bushtit may be frequently polyandrous and occasionally polygynandrous or polygynous. Pairs may be aided by helpers, where a related or unrelated individual (or more than one) helps the established pair raise the young. This has been recorded in at least four of the species; further research is required to see if the behavior carries over to other members of the family. Aegithalids make domed or hanging, bag-like nests of woven

cobwebs A spider web, spiderweb, spider's web, or cobweb (from the archaic word '' coppe'', meaning "spider") is a structure created by a spider out of proteinaceous spider silk extruded from its spinnerets, generally meant to catch its prey. Spid ...

and

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.The clutch comprises 5 to 10 white eggs, which in many of the species have red speckles. Adults incubate the eggs for 13 to 14 days; young stay in the nest for 16 to 18 days. In at least four of the species (the long-tailed tit, the

black-throated bushtit :''In older sources, "black-throated tit" can also mean the rufous-naped tit or the rufous-vented tit, which are true tits.'' The black-throated bushtit (''Aegithalos concinnus''), also known as the black-throated tit, is a very small passerine ...

, and silver-throated bushtit), only the female incubates. Young chicks are fed exclusively on insects and spiders.

Taxonomy

The family Aegithalidae (as a subfamily Aegithalinae) was introduced by the German naturalist

Ludwig Reichenbach Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach (8 January 1793 – 17 March 1879) was a German botanist and ornithologist. It was he who first requested Leopold Blaschka to make a set of glass marine invertebrate models for scientific education and museu ...

in 1850. The name comes from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

word for a tit.

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

recognised three species: the

, the

great tit The great tit (''Parus major'') is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Af ...

, and the

Eurasian blue tit The Eurasian blue tit (''Cyanistes caeruleus'') is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is easily recognisable by its blue and yellow plumage and small size. Eurasian blue tits, usually resident and non-migratory birds, are ...

. The

is placed in this family because it moves around in flocks and its nests resemble the long-tailed tits', but information about it is so scanty that the placement is only provisional. The Burmese bushtit is sometimes treated as conspecific with the black-browed bushtit. The

was once thought to belong to the

chickadee The chickadees are a group of North American birds in the tit family included in the genus ''Poecile''. Species found in North America are referred to as chickadees, while other species in the genus are called tits. They are small-sized birds ...

family, but it has distinctive behavioral habits, especially when it comes to nesting. There are 13 species in 3 genera.

References

* Harrap and Quinn, ''Tits, Nuthatches and Treecreepers''

External links

Long-tailed Tits videos
on the Internet Bird Collection {{Taxonbar, from=Q473939 Bird families Taxa named by Ludwig Reichenbach