Willow Tit Poecile montanus

The Willow Tit, Poecile montanus, is a small and unassuming woodland bird belonging to the family Paridae, and Britain’s most rapidly declining resident passerine. Almost identical to the Marsh Tit in plumage – distinguished most reliably by its bull-necked appearance, dull rather than glossy black cap, pale buff wing panel, and nasal, buzzing ‘eez-eez-eez’ call – it inhabits a very different ecological niche, favouring damp, scrubby woodland, carr, and willow and alder thickets where it excavates its own nest hole in soft, rotting wood. The Willow Tit has suffered a catastrophic decline of over 90% since the 1970s and is a Red List species, with the loss of damp, dense scrub habitats through drainage, succession, and changes in woodland management considered the primary drivers. Image: © Sue Cro, Flickr.

Find out more: RSPB, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, iNaturalist