Bearded Tit

Panurus biarmicus (Linnaeus, 1758)

		male
2020-05-29 Buryatia, Gusinoe lake	© Aleksey Bolshakov

Biology

Abundant resident, in places common or rare breeding migrant. Inhabits the reed-beds with scattered willow bushes, often on fresh or salty lakes. On dispersal and wintering visits the bush thickets, riparian forests and tall-grass thickets. In northern areas appears in March – April. Breeds by separate pairs. Nest is located in reed or mace beds among the heaps of old stems, in dense dry stems, in Cormorant nests or in reed fences of human houses at 5-20 cm above the water level. Nest is built by both partners from the dry reed leaves and grass and is lined with plenty of reed panicles and fluff, with some feathers sometimes. Clutch of 4-8, usually 5-6 eggs is laid in end of April to end of June. Both parents incubate clutch and feed juveniles which fledge in last ten days of May to early July. In northern areas one pair rears one brood per year, in southern ones one pair rears probably two or three broods. Re-nesting after loss of first clutch is common. Autumn migration begins in September – October in flocks of 30-80 birds which can fly very high. At Chokpak Pass registered from October to mid-November.

References