The European Crested Tit (Lophophanes cristatus) is the only Swedish tit with a crest, a coniferous-forest specialist that rarely strays from its territory. It measures 11-13 cm in length, has a wingspan of around 17-20 cm and weighs 10-13 grams. Its wholly diagnostic feature is the pointed, upright, black-and-white speckled crest on the crown, found in no other Swedish tit. The upperparts are brownish-grey and the underside off-white to beige, while the pale face is marked by a black line through the eye and a black line framing the cheek, with a black throat patch continuing into a narrow black collar. The sexes look alike.
Its most common call is a characteristic rolling, purring "prrr-prrr-prrr" or "siri-siri-pürr", which often reveals the bird before it is seen, useful since it tends to stay high in the spruce canopy. Occurring in southern and central Sweden north to central Norrland, it is tied to coniferous forest and absent from the far north and above the treeline; the Swedish population is estimated at just over a hundred thousand pairs. It is a strongly resident, highly sedentary species that seldom moves far from its territory, often joining roving winter flocks with great tits, goldcrests and other tits. It nests in holes in rotten wood, typically a decaying stump or dead trunk, usually excavating or enlarging the cavity itself, making it dependent on dead wood in the forest, and rarely takes an ordinary nest box. The female lays 5-8 eggs, incubated for about 13-16 days. Its diet is insects, spiders and larvae during the warmer months, while conifer seeds, mainly spruce, become increasingly important in autumn and winter, when it hoards food in bark crevices and among lichens.
Read about this species in Swedish →