Long-tailed Tit

How to recognise it

• Small round body with a tail making up more than half its length
• Black back, wine-red or reddish-brown shoulders and a white-edged black tail
• Short bill and black eye with a yellow-orange upper eyelid
• Northern birds have an all-white head without dark eyebrow stripes, sexes look alike

Call and song

Flocks call constantly, so Long-tailed Tits are often heard before they are seen. The three main calls are a single high pit, a three-syllable trill eez-eez-eez and a rattling schnuur. Passing flocks give a three-syllable sii-sii-siih alternating with a buzzing tserr tserr. The song is rarely heard and is soft and twittering.

Where and when

In Sweden it occurs in the south and centre, north to southern Värmland, Dalarna and Hälsingland, and along the Norrland coast to Norrbotten. It is reported from all 21 counties, most in November to February and rarely in July. The Swedish population was estimated at 34 000 pairs in 2018 and is considered viable but thought to be declining. It is not on the Swedish Red List 2025.

Food and behaviour

The Long-tailed Tit clings nimbly to thin twigs, often upside down. It eats insects all year, mainly arthropods, and prefers the eggs and larvae of butterflies and moths. At winter feeders it takes small pieces of nuts, suet, breadcrumbs and cheese. Outside the breeding season it forms compact flocks of three to 30 birds, which huddle together on cold winter nights to keep warm.