Eurasian Penduline Tit

Remiz pendulinus - Rémiz penduline

Systematics
  • Order 
    :

    Passeriformes

  • Family
    :

    Rémizidés

  • Genus
    :

    Remiz

  • Species
    :

    pendulinus

Descriptor

Linnaeus, 1758

Biometrics
  • Size
    : 11 cm
  • Wingspan
    : -
  • Weight
    : 8 à 11 g
Geographic range

Distribution

Identification

Rémiz penduline
♂ adult plum. breeding
Rémiz penduline
♀ adult

It used to be called the Rémiz Blue Tit, but it is not a real tit. It has its own family, the Remizidae, named after the Remiz genus. The Eurasian Penduline Tit is a small bird, slightly smaller than a Blue Tit for example and more slender. Here we will describe the European subspecies pendulinus, one of the 4 that make up the species.
The adult is easy to recognize and sexual dimorphism is slight. The head of the adult male is a very light grey with a black band that starts from the forehead and widens around the eyes and ears. Above the black, a narrow light brown line can be noted on the forehead. The iris is a very dark brown. The beak is triangular and thin from the side view and grey. In the adult female, the grey is darker. The black band is narrower and barely covers the forehead. A one-year old male can be confused with a female.
On the upper parts, the mantle and wings of bright chestnut color, slightly less bright in the female, stand out. The primary and secondary feathers have a wide pale edging.
The lower parts are a more or less pronounced fawn depending on the season. This shade even covers the head in the inter-nuptial season. The strong and clawed feet are dark grey.
The juvenile looks a lot like a winter adult, but with a less vivid upper part and without black on the head. The beak is paler. In the caspius subspecies of SW Russia, the grey on the head is replaced with a warm brown on the crown, slightly lighter on the nape, a brown that is found again on the mantle. The throat is cream. One could think to have another species of Remiz.

Subspecific information 4 subspecies

  • Remiz pendulinus pendulinus (Europe to the Ural Mts., Caucasus and w Turkey)
  • Remiz pendulinus menzbieri (s and e Turkey and Syria to Armenia and nw Iran)
  • Remiz pendulinus caspius (sw Russia and nw Kazakhstan)
  • Remiz pendulinus jaxarticus (e Ural Mts. to w Siberia and n Kazakhstan)

Foreign names

  • Rémiz penduline,
  • Pájaro moscón europeo,
  • chapim-de-mascarilha,
  • Beutelmeise,
  • függőcinege,
  • Buidelmees,
  • Pendolino,
  • pungmes,
  • Pungmeis,
  • kúdeľníčka lužná,
  • moudivláček lužní,
  • Pungmejse,
  • pussitiainen,
  • teixidor eurasiàtic,
  • Pungmeisa,
  • remiz (zwyczajny),
  • somzīlīte,
  • plašica,
  • Ремез,
  • ニシツリスガラ,
  • 欧亚攀雀,
  • 歐亞攀雀,

Voice song and cries

Rémiz penduline
♂ adult

The call is a drawn-out tsiiiiiiiih, high-pitched and sharp, very characteristic. The song is a low-pitched babble that alternates between grating syllables, whistled, rolled, all punctuated by clear notes.

Habitat

Rémiz penduline

In Europe during the warmer months, the Eurasian Penduline Tit looks for close proximity to freshwater, flowing and still, rich with marsh vegetation (phragmites, typha, carices) surrounded by copses of arboreal species, particularly those that have flexible, drooping branches such as poplars and willows for nesting, but also alders, elms and others.

Behaviour character trait

Rémiz penduline
♂ adult plum. breeding

The Eurasian Penduline Tit is comfortable in wetland and tree vegetation due to its robust legs which allow it to grasp and hold onto stems and even hang upside down.

Rémiz penduline
♂ adult plum. post breeding
During mating season, couples select a territory which they defend with their beak and claws. Once the young have left the nest, the families wander in their wetland environment in search of food without seeking the company of other species. It is only at the wintering grounds that Remiz can gather, but never in large numbers, a bit like real tits. Its characteristic shrill cries make it easy to search for specifically.

Dietfeeding habits

Rémiz penduline
♀ adult

The Eurasian Penduline Tit is mainly insectivorous in the summer. It feeds on small insects and their larvae, spiders, aphids, caterpillars, especially when raising young.

Rémiz penduline
♂ adult
It also consumes nectar from certain plants such as flowering willows in the spring. In the bad season, it becomes granivorous and looks for small seeds such as those of willows again. It is a classic sight to see them exploring the cattails of Typha, not only for their small seeds, but also for the invertebrates hiding there.

Reproduction nesting

Rémiz penduline
♂ adult plum. breeding

The male Eurasian Penduline Tit chooses the tree (willow, poplar, occasionally alder) which will hold the nest, 3 to 15 metres high, and begins building it, calling a female through his continuous cries, but only continues if one comes to collaborate.

Rémiz penduline
♂ adult plum. breeding
In the contrary, he abandons the work and builds somewhere else. The tit's nest is a marvel of architecture. It has the aspect of a pear-shaped pouch 16 cm high and 10 cm in diameter (it is cylindrical or spheroid in reed beds). The bird hangs it from the fork of a flexible branch, above the water. The materials used are vegetal wools, fluffly seeds, intertwined and glued, forming a compact furring which is propped up by twigs and fibres, horsehair and fuzz. The pouch is extended in the upper part by a lateral curved tubular appendix with an entrance turned downwards. This work takes 12 to 14 days.
At the end of April or beginning of May, the female, who has fixed the inside of the nest, lays 5 to 10 oblong eggs, usually 7, with a matt white colour and a weight of 0.95 g. She incubates alone during 12 to 15 days, and chases away the male who will be looking to attract a new female for a second nesting; this process is sometimes repeated a third time. The chicks, naked and blind, have an orange throat, bordered in yellow, with a grey-blueish spot on either side. The female feeds them and carries away their droppings. When the young ones have taken flight, the nest is deformed and partly disintegrated. They come back to sleep during 15 to 20 days then leave the area.

Geographic range

The distribution range consists of a Central-European strip extending from the Benelux, East and South France and Spain, to the East by Germany, Poland and Ukraine to the North, Italy, the Balkans and Anatolia to the South, then extending south to Russia and northern Kazakhstan as far as approaching Mongolia.
The winter range is partially disjoint. The Eurasian Penduline Tit leaves the northernmost regions in winter to take refuge in countries bordering the Mediterranean to the north. Further east, it reaches the Aqaba and Persian Gulfs.

Threats - protection

Rémiz penduline
♂ adult
IUCN conservation status
Extinct
Threatened
Least
concern
Extinc
in the Wild
Near
threatened
Not
evaluated
EX EW CR EN VU NT LC NE

The Eurasian Penduline Tit is not currently threatened. Its range is wide and the habitats it occupies are not highly sought after by humans. It may even be slightly expanding in France. This is not to say we should relax our focus on this interesting species.

Sources of information

Other sources of interest

QRcode Rémiz pendulineSpecification sheet created on 28/10/2023 by with help of
partially rewritten on 00/00/0000 by
Translation by AI Oiseaux.net
published: - Updated: 15-02-2023
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