page_title: Long-tailed tit
section_title: Social behaviour
hierarchical_section_title: Long-tailed tit / Behaviour and ecology / Social behaviour
caption_attribution_description: English: "Males fighting for the possession of territory. The feathers have been torn from the crown of the defeated and dying rival" (Territory in bird life p145)
context_page_description: The long-tailed tit or long-tailed bushtit, occasionally referred to as the silver-throated tit or silver-throated dasher, is a common bird found throughout Europe and the Palearctic. The genus name Aegithalos was a term used by Aristotle for some European tits, including the long-tailed tit.
context_section_description: Extensive work has been done by at Wytham Wood, Oxfordshire, in Germany and Japan.
  Outside the breeding season they form compact flocks of six to 17 birds, composed of family parties (parents and offspring) from the previous breeding season, together with any extra adults that helped to raise a brood. These flocks will occupy and defend territories against neighbouring flocks. The driving force behind the flocking behaviour is thought to be that of winter roosting, being susceptible to cold; huddling increases survival through cold nights.
  From July to February, the non-breeding season, long-tailed tits form flocks of relatives and non-relatives, roosting communally. When the breeding season begins, the flocks break up, and the birds attempt to breed in monogamous pairs. Males remain within the winter territory, while females have a tendency to wander to neighbouring territories.
  Pairs whose nests fail have three choices: try again, abandon nesting for the season or help at a neighbouring nest. It has been shown that failed pairs split and help at the nests of male relatives, recognition being established vocally. The helped nests have greater success due to higher provisioning rates and better nest defence. At the end of the breeding season, in June–July, the birds reform the winter flocks in their winter territory.
caption: "Males fighting for the possession of territory. The feathers have been torn from the crown of the defeated and dying rival" (H. E. Howard (1920), Territory in Bird Life, p. 145)
exif: {}