Tail tit
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Tail tit ( Aegithalos caudatus europaeus ) tit |
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| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The tailed tit ( Aegithalos caudatus , Latin cauda , tail ') is a small passerine bird from the tailed tit family (Aegithalidae). It owes its name to its long tail, which enables it to achieve precise balancing when shaking on the outer ends of fine branches on which it primarily looks for food. It mainly populates light forests, forest edges and parks with a lot of undergrowth, in which it builds its egg-shaped nest from moss, plant wool and feathers. Outside of the breeding season, it usually moves in smaller groups.
The tail tit is not more closely related to the real tit . It is in the superfamily of Sylvioidea asked, to which the warbler , warblers , swallows and larks belong.
description
Appearance
The long-tailed tit is quite small with a total length of 13 to 16 centimeters, has a rounded, spherical body and a tail which is noticeably long at 6 to 10 centimeters, from which the species name goes back. The black beak is short and fine with a length of 6 to 7 millimeters. The weight is seven to ten grams, the wing length 6 to 7 centimeters. The dimensions and proportions can vary significantly depending on the subspecies.
The head drawing changes with the subspecies and geographical distribution. The strongly varying subspecies Aegithalos caudatus europaeus has a dark head and is found mainly in Western and Southern Europe, the white-headed Aegithalos caudatus caudatus in Northern and Eastern Europe. Both forms can occur side by side in Central Europe , but there are also mixed forms, which can be distinguished as follows:
- Type EE : subspecies europaeus with a striped head (standard form)
- Type EC : subspecies similar to europaeus with a streaky head and a higher proportion of white
- Type CE : subspecies caudate-like with a whitish head with individual dark feathers
- Type CC : subspecies caudatus with a pure white head, sharp demarcation from the black neck, without a chest band, white belly with white or light pink flanks and white or wide white bordered umbrella feathers
- The subspecies of Aegithalos caudatus
Aegithalos caudatus europaeus ( type EE ) has a head drawn in black.
Aegithalos caudatus europaeus ( type EC ) has a black head with a higher proportion of white.
The white head of Aegithalos caudatus caudatus ( type CE ) has dark sprinkles.
The head of Aegithalos caudatus caudatus ( type CC ) is pure white.
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Aegithalos caudatus europaeus
The subspecies Aegithalos caudatus europaeus shows a dark stripe on the sides of the head, which begins in front of the eye, leaves a light area above and extends in an arc to the neck, where it connects with the dark back. This stripe can be of different widths and strengths, possibly quite faded or hardly present. A dark throat patch can also be indicated. The cheeks, throat and sides of the neck are dirty white, as is the underside, which also shows a reddish, reddish-brown or wine-red tinge on the flanks and stomach. The under tail covers are covered brick-red. The upper side is black with an extensive pink field on the shoulder plumage, where the pink can merge into white at the lower edge. The wings of the hand are dark gray-brown and can have a light border. With the same dark basic color, the arm wings show a wide white border, which is particularly wide on the inner four and which are also lighter overall. The hand covers are black-brown and show a clear, white border. The joint is narrow, very long and black and shows clear white outside flags. The feet are dark brown.
A colored, slightly thickened edge is noticeable on the upper eyelid. Its color varies with the subspecies; in Aegithalos caudatus europaeus , for example, it is lemon yellow. The iris is brown.
Fledglings have, apart from a white, oval vertex, a black-brown head. The rest of the top is brown with no pink shoulders. In addition, the eye ring is clearly reddish, later colored red. The feet are flesh-colored.
Aegithalos caudatus caudatus
The subspecies Aegithalos caudatus caudatus , which occurs mainly in the north and north-east of Europe, has a whitish to pure white head without drawings, which looks sharply set off against the back. In addition, the underside is usually lighter and only slightly reddish brown in color. Towards the east, the plumage becomes clinically whiter and the white parts purer. Aegithalos caudatus caudatus can also appear in Central Europe , especially in winter ; sometimes it breeds here too.
Other subspecies
In the southern European subspecies, for example Aegithalos caudatus irbii in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, the over-eye stripes are clearly pronounced, the sides of the head are dashed. The reddish brown plumage on the underside is more pronounced.
In the subspecies Aegithalos caudatus tephronotus , which occurs, for example, in Turkey, the sides of the head are strongly dashed, the top is gray and a dark throat spot is pronounced. The tail is much shorter than that of Aegithalos caudatus europaeus .
voice
The species shows a repertoire of very characteristic calls, which are clearly different from the vocalizations of actual tits , with which it occasionally happens to socialize. Close-range voice-feel sound is a sharp, short, and voiceless prrt-prrt-prrt . At greater distances, especially with troops flying over long distances, a trilling, usually three-syllable srii-srii-srii or sirr-sirr-sirr is used. A very characteristic chirping- rasping terrr and a fast and trilling siririririri can be heard when a flock leaves or enters a place, as well as when excited . The latter also serves as a warning call to air enemies. In spring, often in connection with finding a partner, very high si-si-si sounds can be heard, which are very similar to the high-pitched calls of tree walkers and nuthatches . The singing is inconspicuous and does not serve to delimit the territory. It is seldom heard and probably comes into play mainly when there is strong excitement (during rivalry fights or copulation). It sounds slightly chirping like a pipe singer, only much quieter and softer. The youth singing, which is no different and starts after 5–6 weeks, presumably serves to establish a ranking.
behavior
With its light build and long tail, which enables it to precisely balance its body, the tailed tit is adapted to foraging for food at the extreme tips of the branches. This ecological niche accounts for around 80% of foraging. Tests have shown that it largely loses these possibilities if the tail is trimmed to the length of that of a blue tit. Her skills in dangling and jumping on small branches are amazing. For example, she can hang upside down on a branch by hopping and hop overhead along it. In this position, she can turn her body by 90 ° and thus reach the entire environment on the corresponding branch. She can also hold on to one foot and move on to the next branch. It is also possible for her to eat the food she has collected "out of her fist", so she does not need a pad to prepare the food.
The social behavior of the tail tit is quite pronounced. Outside the breeding season, the tailed tit lives in small schools of up to 30 individuals. These show a strong cohesion and claim a certain territory that is defended against other swarms. Its boundaries are usually defined by natural conditions such as roads or forest edges. Overlapping of the territories has also been observed in Japan, but not so far in Europe. The size of the area correlates with the size of the swarm.
During the time when there is a lot of food, around 50% of the day, and sometimes 90–96% in winter, is spent looking for food in the troop. Several kilometers (usually 3–5, sometimes up to 11) are covered within a day. A foraging troop usually stays in one place between 2 and 15 minutes and then moves on.
Within the winter swarms, people sleep together in sleeping societies nestled close together, which enables greater resistance to particularly low temperatures. The sleeping places are mostly in thick bushes at a height of 1–10 m. It is approached specifically and the individuals of the swarm gather near the sleeping branch. Then, in a ritualized act, similar to courtship, the individual distance is overcome. Two individuals sit down on the sleeping branch and slide back and forth. After moving closer together, they look away from each other and clean themselves. Then more individuals fly into the middle. The formation of the row in which the highest ranking sit in the middle takes place with a quiet twittering. Sometimes the process is disturbed by individuals who are still aggressive, and then a new start is made. The procedure therefore usually takes up to 30 minutes. The tails of the lined up birds end up pointing in different directions, sometimes a ball with tails pointing outwards is also formed. In the morning the meeting is dissolved without any further ceremony.
distribution
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The brood distribution of this Palearctic species extends over large parts of the temperate maritime and continental climatic zone and extends into the boreal and subtropical zone. In Europe it is only absent on Iceland, in northern Fennoscandia , the more northern of the Scottish islands, the Balearic Islands, Sardinia and Crete. The northern boundary of the area runs through Siberia at around 60–61 ° N to the Sea of Okhotsk , where the species still occurs in the southern part of Kamchatka and on the southern Kuril Islands . To the east of the Mediterranean, the southern area boundary, excluding a zone north of the Black Sea, includes Asia Minor, the Caucasus and Transcaucasia, northern Iraq, the Zagros and Elbrus Mountains and the west of the Kopet-Dag . It runs north of the Black Sea between 49 and 53 ° N through southern Ukraine, along the southern Volga and the Ural lowlands, through northern Kazakhstan to the Sayan Mountains and the Mongolian Altai . In Mongolia , it includes the Changai and Chentii Mountains and then runs south through the Great Hinggan Mountains and Manchuria . There is a large sub-area in China and Japan, which extends to Inner Mongolia in the north, to Ningxia in the west and follows the course of the Yangtze in the south .
hikes
In Central and Western Europe, the tailed tit is mostly stationary or line bird . Occasionally there are light, non-directional dispersions , but most birds travel well below 100 km. In Northern and Eastern Europe, the tail tit is one of the invasion bird species .
Geographic variation
A distinction can be made between three subspecies groups, which are mixed more or less strongly in the transition populations: the northern caudatus group has a dark back and a white head, the southern alpinus group has a slate-gray back and dark stripes on the sides of the head. In between is the europaeus group, which shows a mixture of characteristics of both groups. The origin of this group through hybridization is discussed.
Caudate group
- Ae. c. caudatus ( Linnaeus , 1758) - Northern Europe southwards to Poland, into the northern Carpathians and the Ukraine
- Ae. c. sibiricus - southeastern part of European Russia to Kamchatka (mostly grouped with caudatus as a subspecies)
- Ae. c. japonicus - East of Amur and Ussuri , Southern Kuriles , Hokkaidō , Sakhalin
Europaeus group
- Ae. c. rosacaeus ( Mathews , 1938) - British Isles
- Ae. c. europaeus ( Hermann , 1804) - Northeastern France to Germany, south to the southern foot of the Alps; Northern Italy, former Yugoslavia, Romania, Northern Bulgaria, northwestern Turkey ( Eastern Thrace )
- Ae. c. aremoricus ( Whistler , 1929) - Northwest France (east to center, south to Poitou), Île d'Yeu and Channel Islands
- Ae. c. taiti ( Ingram , 1913) - south and south-west France, south to central Spain and Portugal, Mallorca.
- Ae. c. macedonicus ( Dresser , 1892) - Albania, Macedonia, Greece, southern Bulgaria and north-west Turkey (south-west Thrace)
- Ae. c. tauricus ( Menzbier , 1903) - mountain ranges in the south of the Crimea
- Ae. c. magnus ( AH Clark , 1907) - Central and South Korea, Tsushima Island
- Ae. c. kiusiuensis ( Kuroda , 1923) - southern Japan ( Shikoku , Kyushu and Yakushima ).
- Ae. c. trivirgatus ( Temminck & Schlegel , 1848) - Middle Japan ( Honshū , Awaji-shima , Sado and Oki ) and Jeju-do
Alpinus group
- Ae. c. irbii ( Sharpe & Dresser , 1871) - Portugal (south of the Tagus), central and southern Spain and Corsica
- Ae. c. italii ( Jourdain , 1910) - Italy and southwestern Slovenia
- Ae. c. siculus ( Whitaker , 1901) - Sicily
- Ae. c. tephronotus ( Günther , 1865) - Lesbos and Samos, western and central Turkey (extreme east of Thrace), Syria and extreme north of Iraq
- Ae. c. major ( Radde , 1884) - Caucasus (from the northern foothills of the Greater Caucasus), Northeast Anatolia (at least east of Şebinkarahisar ), Georgia, Armenia, northern and central Azerbaijan
- Ae. c. alpinus ( Hablizl , 1783) - southeastern Azerbaijan (Talış mountains and lowlands near Lənkəran), northern Iran (eastwards through the Elburs Mountains and southern, Caspian regions to Gorgan ) and southwestern Turkmenistan (Kopet Dag)
- Ae. c. passekii ( Zarudny , 1904) - extreme southeast of Turkey and western Iran (Zagros Mountains south to Fars )
- Ae. c. vinaceaus ( Verreaux , 1870) - West to North China
- Ae. c. glaucolaris ( Moore , 1855) - Central China
habitat
The tailed tit lives in habitats with richly structured borders and a frequent change between wooded or bushy and open areas. Humid habitats are often accepted, often near water. For the establishment of the nest, the presence of dense undergrowth, a well-developed shrub layer, thorny bushes or conifers such as junipers or young spruce is required.
In Central Europe it therefore settles in light deciduous and mixed forests in moist habitats, but also in hedge landscapes and bushy ruderal areas. It has also been found in urban biotopes such as green spaces, parks, cemeteries or overgrown gardens for several decades. She largely avoids the interior of closed, uniform forests.
In Northern Europe it often breeds in swamps, moors or on the edge of the cultivated landscape. In the zone of the boreal coniferous forest , birch stands are preferred.
In Western Europe, it is increasingly found outside of forests in the hedge landscape, juniper heaths and dry slopes with gorse . In the Mediterranean area it populates the dense maquis , in Asia Minor also dry pine forests and olive groves .
In general, it avoids extensive pure coniferous forests, but in central Siberia it also occurs in mixed coniferous forests of spruce, fir, larch and Siberian stone pine , but here presumably also in forest edge habitats with admixture of deciduous trees. In southwest China ( Yunnan Province ) it also inhabits pine forests.
In the western part of the distribution area, the tailed tit is usually found at altitudes of up to 1000 m, but in isolated cases it is also found at heights of up to 1300 m (Turkey), 1500 m (Caucasus), 1800 m (Alps) or 1830 m (Iran). In East Asia it lives mainly in montane habitats from 500 m. In Japan they are found there at altitudes of up to 1,600 m, in some Chinese provinces ( Jilin , Shaanxi , Gansu , Qinghai , northern Sichuan and Yunnan) at altitudes of up to 3,050 m. Mostly it migrates to lower altitudes in winter, but there are also observations from the months of January and February from such heights.
nutrition
The main part of the diet of the tailed tit consists of small insects and other arthropods as well as their larvae and eggs. Small and tiny insects are particularly popular with tailed tits, such as aphids and scale insects . These are mainly read from the outer branches of trees. There is no recognizable specialization. However, due to seasonal or local conditions, certain species may become the exclusive source of food.
Vegetable food (e.g. buds, seeds, small berries, tree sap, lichens or algae on branches) generally plays a minor role, but can be a valuable addition to the food spectrum, especially during the cold season. The fact that they also accept small pieces of nuts, tallow, breadcrumbs, cheese or other items when they are fed winter shows that tailed tits are not too specialized.
The nestling food hardly differs from the rest, but it is preferred to feed larger prey such as the caterpillars of butterflies ( oak moth , gypsy moth , nun etc.).
Reproduction
Tail tits become sexually mature at the end of their first year of life and presumably lead a monogamous seasonal marriage. Change of partner or a bond beyond the breeding season have not yet been proven. An annual brood takes place, the occurrence of second broods has not yet been clearly proven.
Territory formation and courtship
The territory formation takes place like the courtship out of the winter swarm from the middle of January - in bad weather sometimes not until March. The pairs are increasingly separating themselves from the swarm and occupy a breeding area within its territory, which is also defended against other individuals in the swarm. At first these are still partially tolerated, later and especially after completion of the nest they are then driven out with sometimes violent reactions. Sometimes the territories can overlap, which then leads to disputes, especially when nests are close together.
The swarm affiliation of the male is always decisive for establishing a hunting ground. Especially unmated females sometimes migrate and switch to other associations; this often happens when the flocks have territorial disputes, during which the respective female simply changes sides. Most of the time, however, the pairs are found within a swarm.
In general, the swarm begins to break up when the nest is built, but in cold weather it can come together again. This can mean completely abandoning the nests and roaming around together, as in winter, or just temporarily resuming nightly sleeping parties. Otherwise, the couples spend the night separately from the swarm. When the nest is almost complete, they spend the night inside until the young fly out.
During courtship, the male flies up like butterflies and jerks at heights of 5–6 m, spreads and closes the tail at short intervals and can then slide down vertically - often simultaneously or in succession with other males. The choice of nesting place and nest building are also very conspicuous and have ritual features.
Nest location and choice of nesting site
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While choosing a nesting place, both partners fly around conspicuously and with calls with nesting material, whereby the male draws attention to different suitable places. It usually carries a very conspicuous, light-colored piece of material like a feather and then waits for the female singing and trembling its wings. If this deposits something moss or the like, the final location is decided.
The nest can be in deciduous or coniferous trees, in climbing plants, hedges or bushes, in root or thorn scrub, in brushwood piles or on the ground. In exceptional cases there were broods in caves or nesting boxes. The height of the nest is very variable, but is usually between 1.5 and 6 m. Only in exceptional cases is the nest built on the ground or at a height of up to 30 m. In deciduous and young conifers, it is usually found upright near the trunk, in old conifers it is often built hanging in the outer branches. Such nests are usually quite high. The opening is usually oriented towards the sunniest side.
Nest and nest building
The tail tit's nest is a very compact, closed and thick-walled, oval structure, the dimensions of which are on average between 110 and 250 mm in height and between 90 and 180 mm in diameter. It is usually a little higher than it is wide and somewhat flattened on the sides, the side loophole of about 30 mm in diameter is almost always in the upper half. In rare cases there can be two of these. As the young birds grow, the construction can expand a little.
The nest, whose inside diameter is between 50 and 60 mm and whose wall thickness is 10–30 mm, is often built into the surrounding branches and therefore hardly susceptible to wind. With its strong padding, it also offers good protection against rain and cold. Sometimes, however, a nest is not closed at the top and is reminiscent of that of the chaffinch .
The outside of the nest consists of finely woven moss, lichen and cobwebs, but stalks, fibers and other plant components, feathers, wool and hair are also used. The lichen of the nest tree is often used for the outer shell, which provides a particularly good camouflage. The extensive upholstery consists mostly of feathers. The nesting material is usually gathered from the surrounding area, but distances of up to 600 m are also accepted for the purpose of obtaining the feathers.
Nest building, which is carried out in equal parts by both sexes, often takes up to 33 days, less often it can take 5–6 weeks in bad weather. In such cases, the nest can be completely abandoned early in the year, from March this case occurs less often. If a replacement nest is built after the first one has been given up, it is usually completed within 5–6 days. However, this is usually less compact and less padded.
The nest is built from the bottom up. First, a platform made of moss or something similar is created, in which a hollow is formed by rotating movements. Then the finely matted walls are pulled up at a speed of 1 to 3.5 cm per day. A large part of the construction work takes place from the inside. At the end, the walls are pulled up again by the bird building inside and the roof is closed. The loophole is created by a recess and is then reinforced at the lower edge. The "shell construction" takes about nine days. The last phase, which can also take as long again, is the careful padding.
Clutch and incubation
Laying usually begins 1–7 days after completion of the nest, in exceptional cases the nest was still being built while a bird was already breeding. Depending on the weather, the breeding season begins between the end of March and the end of April, and less often earlier.
The clutch usually consists of 8–12, more rarely only 5–6 or even up to 16 eggs. These are round-oval, slightly pointed at one end and almost dull. On a white to yellowish-white background, they are lightly yellowish-brown or gray mottled. The speckle condenses a little at the broad end, but is often missing entirely in some of the eggs or can hardly be seen. The eggs are on average 14 × 11 mm in size.
It only breeds the female, which is fed by the male during this time. The breeding period is between 12 and 18 days, in Central Europe it is mostly 13-14 days.
Rearing boys
In addition to the two adult birds, of which the female occasionally also hoards , the nestlings are fed by a variable number of helpers. This can be up to eight individuals related to the male. With the help of other adult birds, it is possible to raise an astonishing number of up to 12 young birds per brood. Which birds play a helper role has not been conclusively clarified. For example, it can be a couple whose attempt at breeding has failed. However, these never help together on the same nest, only their respective nest siblings.
The young leave the nest after 14-18 days, but are fed by parents and helpers for up to 14 more days.
literature
- UN Glutz von Blotzheim, KM Bauer : Handbook of the birds of Central Europe (HBV). Volume 13 / I: Passeriformes. 4th part: Muscicapidae - Paridae. AULA-Verlag 1993/2001, ISBN 3-923527-00-4 .
- S. Harrap, D. Quinn: Chickadees, Tits, Nuthatches and Treecreepers , Princeton University Press, Princeton / New Jersey 1995. ISBN 0-691-01083-8
- YES. Nilsson: Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus) in WJM Hagemeijer, MJ Blair: The EBCC Atlas of European Breeding Birds - their distribution and abundance, T & AD Poyser, London 1997, ISBN 0-85661-091-7
Web links
- Aegithalos caudatus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 31 of 2009.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Aegithalos caudatus in the Internet Bird Collection
- Aegithalos caudatus at Fauna Europaea
- Gender and age determination (PDF; 0.8 MB) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta and Gerd-Michael Heinze (English, shown is probably the subspecies irbii )
- Tail tit feathers
Individual evidence
- ↑ Harrap / Quinn (1995), p. 420, s. literature
- ↑ Striped, streaky, whitish or white - or: How are the tail tit phenotypes distributed in Germany? , Ornitho.de, accessed on October 21, 2018
- ↑ B. Bruun et al. (1991) The Cosmos Bird Guide. The birds of Germany and Europe. Translated and edited by PH Barthel. Stuttgart: Franckh Cosmos. P. 270.
- ↑ Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 348, p. literature
- ^ Riehm (1970) in Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 327, p. literature
- ↑ Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 351, s. literature
- ↑ a b c d e f Harrap / Quinn, p. 422, s. literature
- ↑ Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 348, p. literature
- ↑ Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 323, s. literature
- ↑ a b c Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 337f, s. literature
- ↑ Nilsson, p. literature
- ↑ a b Harrap / Quinn (1995), p. 421, see literature
- ↑ a b Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 346, s. literature
- ↑ a b Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 351, s. literature
- ^ C. Harrison, P. Castell, H. Hoerschelmann: Young birds, eggs and nests of birds in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East , Aula Verlag, Wiebelsheim 2004, ISBN 3-89104-685-5
- ↑ a b All dimensions from Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 342, s. literature
- ↑ Harrap / Quinn, p. 422 and Glutz v. Blotzheim p. 343, s. literature
- ↑ Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 342f, s. literature
- ↑ a b C. Harrison, P. Castell, H. Hoerschelmann: Young birds, eggs and nests of birds in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East , Aula Verlag, Wiebelsheim 2004, ISBN 3-89104-685-5 and Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 345, s. literature