Wildlife
Bearded tits are particularly vulnerable to long cold winters, when populations can be reduced to mere handfuls. Thankfully populations recover successfully after milder ones. The arrival of spring also brings its own problems as flooding can wash away their nests.
Their common name is quite misleading as they do not have beards, though the males do sport markings that look rather like a moustache. They are also no longer assigned to the tit family! Bearded tits are wetland specialists, that breed in the reed beds and swamps of Europe and Asia. There are around 500 pairs in the UK found in south and east England.
In order to see this content you need to have an up-to-date version of Flash installed and Javascript turned on.
Feeding bearded tits
Presenter Ellie helps warden John Wilson give the bearded tits an unusual winter food.
At RSPB Leighton Moss, Ellie helps warden John Wilson give the bearded tits an unusual winter food.
Grit for tits
Bearded tits need something gritty to help digest their seed diet.
Bearded tits need something gritty to help digest their seed diet.
Species range provided by WWF's Wildfinder.
The Bearded tit can be found in a number of locations including: Asia, Europe, Mediterranean, Russia, United Kingdom, Wales, Ynys-hir nature reserve. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
The following habitats are found across the Bearded tit distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
Least Concern
Year assessed: 2009
Classified by: IUCN 3.1
The Bearded Reedling (Panurus biarmicus) is a small, sexually dimorphic reed-bed passerine bird. It is frequently known as the Bearded Tit, due to some similarities to the Long-tailed Tit, or the Bearded Parrotbill.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. If you find the content in the 'About' section factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. For more information on our use of Wikipedia please read our FAQ.
Take a trip through the natural world with our themed collections of video clips from the natural history archive.
Garden birds
Nestcam close-ups, expert identification guides and specialist wildlife cameras give a privileged view of a very British obsession: garden birds.
BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
Helpless young
Colonial
Adapted to flying
Acoustic communication
Monogamous
Moulting
Egg layer
Parental investment
Visual communication