Eurasian penduline tit
Remiz pendulinus
— Where the name comes from
Remiz is the Polish name for this little bird, adopted as the genus name. Pendulinus means “hanging”, like the Italian pendolino: the nest is a pouch that sways from the tip of a slender branch, usually over water.
— Facts
- Group
- Birds · Aves
- Order
- Passerines
- Habitat
- Reedbeds, riverside willow and poplar woods, the banks of rivers and lakes
- Range
- Europe, central and western Asia
- Size
- 10–11 cm, 9–11 g
- Diet
- Insects, spiders, seeds
- Lifespan
- A few years
— Characteristics
- 01
It has a black mask over its eyes, like a bandit.
- 02
It weaves its nest from plant fibres and the down of poplar, willow and bulrush seeds.
- 03
The nest has a tubular entrance facing down or to the side.
— What sets it apart
In the penduline tit males and females are in open conflict over who should raise the young. Both tend to abandon the clutch to mate again, and in a sizeable share of nests both leave, abandoning the eggs to their fate. Females have evolved a deception: they hide the eggs already laid under the nest material, so that the male does not realise the clutch has begun and does not seize the chance to leave before her. In the villages of eastern Europe the nests, soft as felt, were used as children’s slippers.
