Tit-warblers, bushtits and long-tailed tits | Aegithalidae

Staartmezen | Mitos

The nest is a hanging, purse-shaped bag of moss, lichen and spider silk, camouflaged on the outside and lined inside with hundreds of small feathers; it takes weeks to build, the fabric stretches as the young grow, and the whole family sleeps in it at night, including after the young have fledged. The entrance sits high in one side. Outside the breeding season these birds move through scrub and treetops in groups of ten to a few dozen as one unbroken string: one after another they hop the same route, while a constant fine ticking holds the party together. There is no true song. At the nest the parents are regularly helped by extra adults that bring food, and a pair disturbed while building leaves the half-finished structure and starts again elsewhere. Male and female are hard to tell apart, except by the colour of the iris.