The crested tit or European crested tit (''Lophophanes cristatus'') (formerly ''Parus cristatus''), is a

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 th ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread and common resident breeder in

conifer Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ex ...

ous forests throughout central and northern Europe and in

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, a ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

in France and the

Iberian peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

. In

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

, it is chiefly restricted to the ancient pinewoods of Inverness and Strathspey in Scotland, and seldom strays far from its haunts. A few vagrant crested tits have been seen in England. It is resident, and most individuals do not migrate.

Taxonomy and systematics

This species was formerly placed in ''Parus'', but the distinctness of ''Lophophanes'' is well supported, and it is now recognised by the

American Ornithologists' Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

and the

British Ornithologists' Union The British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) aims to encourage the study of birds (" ornithology") and around the world, in order to understand their biology and to aid their conservation. The BOU was founded in 1858 by Professor Alfred Newton, ...

as a distinct genus. The current genus name, ''Lophophanes'', is 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 p ...

''lophos'', "crest", and ''phaino'', "to show". The specific ''cristatus'' is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

for "crested".

Behaviour and ecology

It is an easy tit to recognise, for besides its erectile crest, the tip of which is often recurved, its gorget and collar are distinctive. It is, like other tits, talkative, and birds keep up a constant ''zee, zee, zee'' , similar to that of the coal tit. It makes a nest in a hole in rotting stumps. This bird often feeds low down in trees, but although not shy, it is not always easily approached. It will join winter tit flocks with other species. Like other tits it is found in pairs and it feeds on

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s (including

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larva, larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterfly, butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawfly ...

s) and seeds.

Gallery

File:Lophophanes cristatus -Aviemore, Scotland-8.jpg, Crested tit, Aviemore, Scotland File:Lophophanes cristatus -Aviemore, Scotland-8 (1).jpg, Crested tit, Aviemore, Scotland File:Lophophanes cristatus Luc Viatour 5.jpg Lophophanes cristatus - 02.jpg, Crested tit, Cantalejo, Spain File:Parus cristatus MWNH 2285.JPG, Eggs, Collection

Museum Wiesbaden The Museum Wiesbaden is a two-branch museum of art and natural history in the Hessian capital of Wiesbaden, Germany. It is one of the three Hessian State museums, in addition to the museums in Kassel and Darmstadt. History The foundation o ...

References

External links

Crested tit videos, photos & sounds
on the Internet Bird Collection
Song of the crested tit
(Real Audio soundfile from

Sveriges Radio P2 P2 (''pe två'') is one of the four main radio channels operated by Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcasting organization Sveriges Radio (SR). It broadcasts music (principally classical music and jazz) and also carries educational pro ...

)
Ageing and sexing (PDF; 2.3 MB) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze
{{Taxonbar, from=Q207831 Lophophanes Birds of Europe Birds described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus