The Eurasian penduline tit or European penduline tit (''Remiz pendulinus'') 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 t ...

bird of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Remiz ''Remiz'' is a genus of birds in the family Remizidae, commonly known as the Eurasian pendulines (in contrast to the African pendulines). Like other penduline tits, they are named for their elegant, pendulous nests. Taxonomy The genus ''Rem ...

''. It is relatively widespread throughout the western

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

. It is migratory in the northern part of its range but resident in the southern part. The breeding range in Western Europe experienced an expansion during the 1980s and 1990s. This was accompanied by an expansion of the species’ winter range and reached as far south as northern Morocco. It builds an elaborate hanging nest, formerly used in

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...

as children's slippers.

Taxonomy

The Eurasian penduline tit was formally described by the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...

'' under the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Motacilla pedulinus''. It is now placed in the

'' that was introduced in 1819 by the Polish zoologist

Feliks Paweł Jarocki Feliks Paweł Jarocki (Pacanów, 14 January 1790 – 25 March 1865, Warsaw) was a Polish zoologist and entomologist. Life Jarocki was a Doctor of Liberal Arts and Philosophy. He organized and managed the Zoological Cabinet of the Royal Univers ...

. The genus name ''Remiz'' is the Polish word for the Eurasian penduline tit. The specific epithet is from Latin ''pendulus'' meaning "pendant" or "hanging down", referring to the nest. Four

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

are recognised: * ''R. p. pendulinus'' (Linnaeus, 1758) – Europe to the

Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

and west Turkey * ''R. p. menzbieri'' ( Zarudny, 1913) – south, east Turkey and Syria to

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

and northwest Iran * ''R. p. caspius'' (Peltzam, 1870) – southwest Russia and northwest

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

* ''R. p. jaxarticus'' ( Severtzov, 1873) – east Ural Mountains to west Siberia and north Kazakhstan

Description

This is a small tit, in length with a finely pointed bill and a relatively long tail. The head is light grey with a black "mask" through the eye. The back is chestnut brown. The sexes are very similar in appearance, but the male has a broader mask and a more rufous back.

Behaviour

Breeding

The eggs are laid from end of April to the beginning of July. The nest is suspended from thin long branches of trees such as willow ('' Salix''), elm (''

Ulmus Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of Nor ...

'') or birch ('' Betula''), often over water. The nest can also sometimes be suspended between two or three reeds (''

Typha ''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or reedmace, in American English as reed, cattail, or punks, in A ...

'') only a meter or so above the water. The nest is a large free hanging pouch-shaped structure, approximately in height and in diameter. It is made of plant fibres, grass, hair and wool with an entrance tube at one side. Both sexes contribute to the construction which takes around 20 days. Eggs are laid daily. The clutch contains 6 to 8 white eggs which measure and weigh . Incubation starts after the last egg is laid and lasts for 14 days. The eggs are incubated by either the male or more usually the female, but not by both. The hatching is synchronous. The young are cared for by either the male or the female but rarely by both parents. The nestlings are fed larval insects and spiders. The nestlings fledge at around 22 days of age. The parents will sometimes attempt to raise a second brood, but this is rarely successful.

Feeding

The Eurasian penduline tit usually eats insects and spiders but will also eat seeds such as those from the willow ('' Salix''). It generally searches for food in trees but will also forage in reeds where it will take insects from the stem as well as the seed head. It uses one foot to cling to the reed and the other to pull out clumps of seeds from the head.

Status and conservation

The penduline tit has a large range, estimated at 1-10 million square kilometres (0.4-3.8 million square miles), and a population estimated at 420,000–840,000 individuals in Europe alone, and there is evidence that the population is increasing. It is therefore not believed to meet the IUCN Red List threshold criterion of a population decline of more than 30% in ten years or three generations, and is evaluated as Least Concern.

References

Sources

External links

Ageing and sexing (PDF; 3.8 MB) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael HeinzeBiodiversity Lab University of Bath, containing info about Penduline Tit research

Penduline Tit Research Group

Images at www.naturlichter.comOn regular wintering of Eurasian Penduline Tits ''Remiz pendulinus'' in northern Morocco
Remiz Birds of Eurasia Least concern biota of Europe Birds described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Remizidae-stub