Alert Status:
Green - 100% increase from 1994 to 2019 ↑
Estimated number of UK breeding
pairs: 673
Listen to bearded tit song:
Male bearded tits are a cinnamon brown colour with a grey breast and head, with the characteristic black moustache and clear orange bill. Females and juveniles have cinnamon brown back and head with a grey breast. Both have black, white, and brown flight feathers on their upper wing and a long tail, which helps them balance as they perform their distinctive straddle. They are slightly bigger than a long-tailed tit.
They are mostly active in the morning in dry conditions when they can be heard making a ‘ping’ call as they zoom between reeds or performing a split between the reed stalks.
Average length: 12.5-15.5 cm
Average Lifespan: 3 years
Average wingspan: 16-18cm
Bearded tits have an amazing ability to completely switch their diet between summer and winter. In summer they are insectivorous, eating the invertebrates that live in the reeds, however in winter, when insect numbers are low, their diet consists of seeds. To do that they alter their gut functions, accordingly, including eating grit and storing it in their gizzard. This helps them grind up the seeds as their bills are not strong enough to crack them. Not only do they respond to changes in food availability, but they have also been shown to predict these changes based on previous experience and prepare their bodies!
How and what to feed them: Bearded tits are unlikely visitors to garden feeders, but at many reserves they do require some help from us. However, instead of feeding them directly, Leighton Moss reserve have set up gritting tables which allow the birds to fill their gizzard for digesting the tough reed seeds.
Bearded tits build their nests at the base of the reedbed from dead reeds and line them with softer reed heads and feathers in which the female lays 4-8 eggs. They are very effective monogamous breeders and can have up to 4 overlapping broods between March and early September. Both parents will incubate the eggs for 10-14 days before hatching, they will then care for them for a further 12-16 days until they fledge. After the breeding season an eruptive display can be seen as the fledglings disperse locally to new nesting sites.
While the bearded tit’s UK conservation status is least concern, there are a relatively low number of breeding pairs in the UK, due to the limited available habitat. Bearded tits require reedbeds to survive meaning the loss of these habitats is detrimental. Reedbed fires on the Wirrel marshland and Dee estuary have caused largescale damage to these habitats which may take several years to recover. The loss of this habitat could lead to the loss of local bearded tit populations. These fires may become more frequent as climate change causes long dry summers in the UK.
Visit and donate to reedbed reserves such as Leighton moss and Tay reedbeds to help fund conservation actions for this species.
If you live near a reedbed, and have bearded tits visiting your garden, considering setting up a gritting table in winter.
Be very careful not to disturb the fragile reedbed habitats when visiting, and do not light fires near these sites.
Despite the name, bearded tits are not bearded, nor are they tits. Instead, they have black moustaches and are part of their own family called Panuridae.
BirdLife International (2023) Species factsheet: Panurus biarmicus. Downloaded from http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/bearded-reedling-panurus-biarmicus on 03/08/2023
British Trust for Ornithology (2023) Bearded tit, BTO. Available at: https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/bearded-tit (Accessed: 06 August 2023).
Svensson., L (2020) Collins Bird Guide 2nd Edn, Willian Collins ,Great Britain. P. 346.
Romero-Pujante, M., Hoi, H., & Blomqvist, D. (2005). The importance of tail length for habitat use in the Bearded Tit Panurus biarmicus: an experimental study. Ibis, 147(3), 464–470. https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1474-919X.2005.00413.
RSPB, Bearded tit bird facts: Panurus biarmicus, The RSPB. Available at: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/bearded-tit/ (Accessed: 03 August 2023).
Lendvai, Á. Z. (2023). Bearded Reedling (Panurus biarmicus) : the biology of a remarkable bird – a review of the recent literature . Ornis Hungarica, 31(1), 1–1. https://doi.org/10.2478/ORHU-2023-0001
Stępniewski, J., & Halupka, L. (2018). Overlapping breeding attempts in the Bearded Tit (Panurus biarmicus). 9, 22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40657-018-0115-8
Tóth, Z., Mahr, K., Ölveczki, G., Őri, L., & Lendvai, Á. Z. (2022). Food Restriction Reveals Individual Differences in Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 Reaction Norms. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 10, 826968. https://doi.org/10.3389/FEVO.2022.826968/BIBTEX
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