Crested Tit (Lophophanes cristatus)

An advantage of living in a fixed territory is the possibility of storing food for later consumption. Crested Tits don’t just eat what they need for the day, but collect seeds when they are plentiful and store them away in crevices above ground, for example in fissures in bark, one item per hiding place. These can then be retrieved when times are hard, which may be months later.

The social organisation and pairing of Crested Tits is unusual. It seems that first-year birds wander around after fledging and eventually latch on to an established pair with whom they will subsequently spend the winter and share the territory, defending it collectively. Several of these drifters may become “tenants” of the same pair, and if they are of the opposite sex, there is a high chance than they will become an “item” themselves.

Crested Tits are found in pine woods in the north of their range, but are more common in mixed woods, and then deciduous woods towards the south; beechwoods in the Pyrenees, cork oak woods in Spain. Ideal habitat contains rotten tree stumps for nesting. Although some holes prove ideal for nesting, others are refurbished, and still others are excavated from scratch, by the female working on its own.