The Eurasian Penduline Tit (Remiz pendulinus) is a small, colourful tit best known for its remarkable pouch-shaped hanging nest, one of the most elaborately crafted bird nests found in Sweden. At just 10–11 cm long, slightly smaller than a Blue Tit, the male has a distinctive white-to-pale-grey crown, a broad black facial mask running from the base of the bill past the eye, and a rusty-brown to wine-red back, with a pale underside washed rust on the breast. The female is duller with a paler brown mask, and the small, pointed bill and bold mask make the species distinctive among tits.
Its call is a thin, drawn-out, falling whistle, "tsiii" or "tiiii", given frequently and useful for locating the bird in reedbed habitat, with a simple song of repeated whistled notes. In Sweden the species is now extremely rare and irregular, with occasional records along the south coast in Skåne, Blekinge and around Lake Mälaren, though it once bred more regularly in the Mälaren lowlands and Skåne's coastal lakes; the Swedish population has collapsed to under 20 breeding pairs and the species has been classified as critically endangered (CR) on the national red list since 2020, even though the wider European population remains generally stable. It requires reed-lined lake shores with overhanging willow or birch branches near open water, weaving its extraordinary closed, pouch-shaped nest from reed and willow-catkin down suspended from a willow branch, complete with a tubular side entrance; the female lays 5–8 eggs, and a male may build several nests and mate with more than one female. As a summer visitor present from April to September, it winters around the Mediterranean, chiefly Spain and North Africa, feeding on insects and spiders during the breeding season and seeds and fruits from reed and water plants outside it.
Read about this species in Swedish →