World's Smallest Birds

Willow Tit

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Poecile montanus

The Willow Tit is a passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is a widespread and common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and across the Palearctic.

In the east of its range, it is much paler than Marsh Tit, but as one goes west the various races become increasingly similar, so much so that it was not recognised as a breeding bird in Great Britain until the end of the 19th century, despite being widespread.

The Willow Tit is distinguished from the Marsh Tit by a sooty brown instead of a glossy blue-black cap. The general color is otherwise similar, though the underparts are more buff and the flanks distinctly more rufous.

The pale buff edgings to the secondaries form a light patch on the closed wing. The feathers of the crown and the black bib under the bill are longer, but this is not an easily noticed character. However, the more graduated tail (not square) shows distinctly when spread.

It is 4.5 inches in length, has a wingspan of 6.7–8.1 inches and weighs around 11 grams.

CALL: The commonest call is a nasal "zee, zee, zee", but the notes evidently vary considerably. Occasionally a double note, "ipsee, ipsee", is repeated four or five times.

They feed on insects, caterpillars, and seeds, much like other tits.

Conifer mountain forests.

It is resident of Southeast France to Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, and most birds do not migrate. 

They excavate their own nesting hole, even piercing hard bark, this is usually in a rotten stump or in a tree, more or less decayed. Most nests are cups of felted material, such as fur, hair and wood chips, but feathers are sometimes used.

The number of eggs varies from 6 - 9, with reddish spots or blotches.

SOURCE:
https://en.wikipedia.org