Long-tailed tit

Long-tailed tit
	A long-tailed tit in Oxford, United Kingdom
	Calls recorded in Cambridgeshire
Conservation status
	; Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Aegithalidae
Genus:	Aegithalos
Species:	A. caudatus
Binomial name
	Aegithalos caudatus; (Linnaeus, 1758)
Subspecies
	A. c. caudatus – (Linnaeus, 1758); A. c. rosaceus – Mathews, 1938; A. c. europaeus – (Hermann, 1804); A. c. aremoricus – Whistler, 1929; A. c. taiti – Ingram, W, 1913; A. c. irbii – (Sharpe & Dresser, 1871); A. c. italiae – Jourdain, 1910; A. c. siculus – (Whitaker, 1901); A. c. macedonicus – (Salvadori & Dresser, 1892); A. c. tephronotus – (Gunther, 1865); A. c. tauricus – (Menzbier, 1903); A. c. major – (Radde, 1884); A. c. alpinus – (Hablizl, 1783); A. c. passekii – (Zarudny, 1904); A. c. trivirgatus – (Temminck & Schlegel, 1848); A. c. kiusiuensis – Kuroda, Nagamichi, 1923; A. c. magnus – (Clark, AH, 1907);
	Range of A. caudatus Resident Non-breeding
Synonyms
	Parus caudatus Linnaeus, 1758;

The long-tailed tit or long-tailed bushtit (Aegithalos caudatus) is a common bird species belonging to the bushtit family found throughout Eurasia. An insectivore, it inhabits deciduous and mixed woodlands as well as scrub, heathland, farmland, parks and gardens. The plumage of this small long-tailed bird is predominantly black and white with varying amounts of pink and grey. Northern subspecies are paler and have completely white heads, lacking the large dark eyebrows of southern populations. It is a social bird that forms compact family flocks of six to seventeen individuals outside of the breeding season, when these flocks break up. It has a strong preference for nesting in scrub areas and often builds its nest in thorny bushes less than 3 metres (10 feet) above the ground.