No. 243 on our checklistEurasian Penduline Tit (Remiz pendulinus)

Hanging from the tip of a thin willow branch over a channel of the Danube Delta, swinging in the wind, there is sometimes a small grey bag of felt, closed at the top, with a short tube for an entrance. It is the nest of the Eurasian Penduline Tit, a tiny masked bird that weaves it from plant fibres and the white fluff of willow and poplar seeds. Of all the nests in the Danube Delta, it is the most beautiful.

When to see it in the Danube Delta and Dobrogea

1. JanRare
2. FebRare
3. MarModerate
4. AprModerate
5. MayModerate
6. JunModerate
7. JulModerate
8. AugModerate
9. SepModerate
10. OctModerate
11. NovRare
12. DecRare

Status here

All year.

Our checklist

No. 243 of 385 · see the full checklist

How to recognise it

It is smaller than a Blue Tit, with a short, sharply pointed bill. The adult male has a pale grey head with a broad black mask through the eye, like a little bandit, a chestnut back, darker chestnut on the wings and a pale buff breast. The female is similar but duller, with a narrower mask and a paler back. Young birds have no mask at all and look plain brownish.

Most often you notice it by its call: a thin, long, falling whistle, “tsiiu”, coming from the willows or the reeds. In autumn and winter small groups move through the reed beds and hang on the reed plumes like tits.

Feeding and nesting

In summer it eats small insects and spiders, picked from leaves and twigs, often while hanging upside down. In autumn and winter it eats more seeds, especially from reed plumes and bulrush heads, which it pulls apart to reach the insects and larvae inside.

The male starts the nest alone, at the tip of a thin, hanging branch, most often of a willow or a poplar over the water, and only rarely in the reeds. He weaves a ring of plant fibres, then a basket, and sings near it to attract a female. When a female accepts him, they finish it together: a closed, felted bag with a short entrance tube, lined with plant down and bound together with spider silk. The finished nest is warm and strong. The female lays usually six to eight white eggs.

Where to see it in the Danube Delta

Penduline Tits live along the channels and lakes of the whole Danube Delta, wherever willows and poplars grow at the edge of the water. Our checklist marks it moderate from March to October and rare in winter, when fewer birds remain and they move through the reed beds. The best time to find the nests is May and June, along quiet channels lined with old willows, and the easiest way to see them is from a slow boat.

You can see it on our 5 day birdwatching tour in the Danube Delta and on our 5 day wildlife photo tour.

Interesting facts

• A builder that sells his house. The male builds the nest first and uses it to attract a female. A male with a bigger, better nest has a better chance.
• Parents who leave. In most songbirds both parents raise the chicks. In the Penduline Tit, usually only one parent stays: either the male or the female leaves the eggs to start a new nest with another partner, and the one left behind raises the brood alone.
• Sewn with spider silk. The white fluff of willow and poplar seeds and the plant fibres are held together with spider silk. While building, the birds collect cobwebs and use them as thread to bind the whole nest, so well that it keeps its shape for a long time after they have left.
• Named for the nest. Pendulinus comes from the Latin for “hanging”, for its nest that swings at the end of a branch.

Status and threats

The Eurasian Penduline Tit breeds from southern and central Europe across Asia and is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN. It depends on willows and poplars along the water, so it is lost wherever these trees are cut and the river banks are cleared.

For the Penduline Tit the greatest danger is insecticides. It raises its chicks on small insects and spiders, and in many villages of the Danube Delta mosquito sprays are used intensively, often without discernment and without any authorisation, killing far more than mosquitoes.