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European Crested Tit

European Crested Tit

Lophophanes cristatus

Identify the European Crested Tit by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The European Crested Tit is a small tit easily recognised by its spiky black-and-white crest, white cheeks and black throat and collar. A widespread resident of central and northern Europe, it lives mainly in coniferous forests, although in south-western Europe it also uses deciduous woods. Most birds stay in the same woods year-round.

Did you know?

  • It often excavates its own nest in a rotten stump instead of using a ready-made hole.
  • Lophophanes means “showing a crest” in Greek, and cristatus is Latin for “crested”.

Voice

Song

About the species

Identification

A small tit with a clear, striped crest, a black collar and a black-and-white face. The back is grey-brown and the underparts buffish-white; the sexes look alike. The crest and collar separate it from other tits; Coal Tit, for example, lacks a crest and has a dark cap and white nape patch.

Family

Paridae

Size

Tiny (goldcrest)

Colours

brown, black, white, grey

About the habitat

Conifer-dominated woodland, especially mature pine and spruce forest with dead wood and old stumps; also mixed woods with plenty of conifers.

Diet

Insects, larvae and spiders for most of the year; in autumn and winter conifer seeds and other plant material, which it also stores. It visits feeders for seeds and fat.

Behaviour

An active, acrobatic forager that creeps along branches and hangs from twigs, often low in trees. It is usually seen in pairs and readily joins mixed tit flocks in winter. It often excavates its own nest hole in a rotten stump and gives a characteristic purring trill. It can raise or flatten its crest to signal alarm or excitement.

Sources

Photo: Alexis Lours, CC BY 4.0 https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/5938352331

Sound: Joost van Bruggen, XC433387, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/433387

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crested_tit

See also