[All pictures of garden wildlife on this page are thumbnails. Click on any thumbnail for a large format to be displayed.]

Crested Tit (Lophophanes cristatus)

Clickhere for the bird's sound.

The Crested Tit is as arobatic as its cousins are.

This is perhaps the most attractive of all tits. It is however very hard to observe. In winter it appears rarely and certainly irregularly. But certain winters, not necessarily extremely cold ones, it seems te be a daily guest on my feeding table for a certain amount of time. These pictures, of one sitting in the grass, are rare in itself, because the birds almost never sit down on the ground.

Young Crested Tit in our garden.

This bird belongs to the family of Titmice or Chickadees (Paridae). It is common in our garden and can be seen in Holland all year round. The bird is 5" and weighs 11 grams. It lives in woodlands mostly. It eats insects, spiders and seeds. The sexes do not differ from one another. It is a bird that builds a nest in holes (mainly in trees), where it lays five to eight eggs. Breeding is quite normal: some 14 days. The young stay in their hole for some three weeks.

Crested Tit, just like other members of Paridae family, finds peanuts irresistible. This is the way to attract these birds to your feeder in the garden.

* Used to be called Parus cristatus, but now placed in the Lophophanes-genus, together with the Grey Crested Tit from China.