Bearded reedling

Bearded reedling
File:Panurus biarmicus -Oare Marshes, Kent, England -male-8 (3).jpg
Adult male in Kent, England
File:Panurus biarmicus -Oare Marshes, Kent, England -female-8 (2).jpg
Adult female in Kent, England File:Bearded Tit (Panurus biarmicus) (W1CDR0001379 BD5).ogg Birds recorded in Norfolk, England
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Panuridae Des Murs, 1860
Genus:	Panurus Koch, 1816
Species:	P. biarmicus
Binomial name
Panurus biarmicus (Linnaeus, 1758)

File:Baardmannetje in het riet-4714647.webm

Bearded reedling, Texel Netherlands (2009)

The bearded reedling (Panurus biarmicus) is a small, sexually dimorphic reed-bed passerine bird. It is frequently known as the bearded tit, due to some similarities to the long-tailed tit, or the bearded parrotbill.

Taxonomy

The bearded reedling was placed with the parrotbills in the family Paradoxornithidae, after they were removed from the true tits in the family Paridae. However, according to more recent research, it is actually a unique songbird - no other living species seems to be particularly closely related to it. Thus, it seems that the monotypic family Panuridae must again be recognized.

Description

This is a small orange-brown bird with a long tail and an undulating flight. The male has a grey head and black moustaches (not a beard); the lower tail coverts are also black. The female is generally paler, with no black. Flocks often betray their presence in a reedbed by their characteristic "ping" call.

Habitat and distribution

File:Panurus biarmicus MWNH 1404.JPG

Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden

This species is a wetland specialist, breeding colonially in large reed beds by lakes or swamps. It eats reed aphids in summer, and reed seeds in winter, its digestive system changing to cope with the very different seasonal diets.

The bearded reedling is a species of temperate Europe and Asia. It is resident, and most birds do not migrate other than eruptive or cold weather movements. It is vulnerable to hard winters, which may kill many birds. The English population of about 500 pairs is largely confined to the south and east with a small population in Leighton Moss in north Lancashire. In Ireland a handful of pairs breed in County Wexford. The largest single population in Great Britain is to be found in the reedbeds at the mouth of the River Tay in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, where there may be in excess of 250 pairs.

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  Juvenile (top), adult males (center) and adult female (front)

• Panurus biarmicus flock.jpg

  Flock in natural habitat

• Panurus biarmicus Males.jpg

  Three males

• Bearded Tit from the Crossley ID Guide Britain and Ireland.jpg

  ID composite

• Panurus biarmicus.JPG

  A juvenile pecks insects from a cobweb

External links

• Bearded reedling videos, photos & sounds on the Internet Bird Collection
• Song of the Bearded Tit (Real Audio soundfile from Sveriges Radio P2)
• Ageing and sexing (PDF; 3.1 MB) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze