Isn't he just the sweetest little bird! He was very small which is why he was difficult to spot as he blended in with the reeds. You can see why I thought I hadn't got any shots of him as he blends in with the seed heads of the reeds and I couldn't see him until I cropped it. Thank goodness for the crop sensor on my camera.
The penduline tits make hanging nests. Their pendulous and elaborately woven nests have false entrances above the true entrance, these in turn lead to a false chamber. The true nesting chamber is accessed by the parent opening a hidden flap, entering and then closing the flap shut again, the two sides sealing with sticky spider webs. These false entrances are used to confuse potential predators and protect the eggs and nestlings.
The penduline tit has a large range, estimated at 1-10 million square kilometres (0.4-3.8 million square miles), and a population estimated at 420,000–840,000 individuals in Europe alone, and there is evidence that the population is increasing. It is therefore not believed to meet the IUCN Red List threshold criterion of a population decline of more than 30% in ten years or three generations, and is evaluated as Least Concern.
I was surprised by this information but as I had never heard of this bird and it is not native to our country, it's not really that surprising that I had no idea about it. The last time it was seen in Britain was 20 years ago and I wasn't really as interested in birds then as I am now.
