Nature · Birds

Bearded reedling

Resident · 14–15.5 cm

Panurus biarmicus — Panuridae (its own family)

A tiny, long-tailed reedbed specialist, tawny-orange with a very long tail, the male marked by a drooping black moustache that is not a beard at all. Long called the bearded tit, it is not a tit but the only member of its own family. Its metallic "ping" call is usually the first sign of a party moving through the reed tops, and it grows a gizzard lining of grit each winter to mill reed seeds.

How to spot them

▸A metallic, pinging 'ping' call from a reedbed — almost always heard before the bird is seen
▸Tawny-orange body with a very long, loose tail; whirring, laboured flights low over the reed tops
▸Male has a drooping black moustachial stripe on a blue-grey head — a moustache, not a beard
▸Never leaves reedbeds; clings sideways to reed stems in small parties
▸Not a tit: it is the only member of the family Panuridae

How to know it

A sharp metallic 'ping' from deep in a reedbed, usually the first sign of a party working through the reed tops

Bearded reedling — the call is the classic reedbed tell.

The male's black moustachial stripe is a moustache, not the beard its old name implies

Bearded reedling, long called the bearded tit.

Not a tit at all, but the sole member of its own family

Bearded reedling — Panurus biarmicus, family Panuridae.

Switches from insects to reed seeds in autumn, and swallows grit to line its gizzard for milling them

Bearded reedling — the gizzard lining is grown and shed seasonally.

Clings sideways to reed stems with a very long loose tail, whirring low over the reed tops and dropping back in

Bearded reedling — it essentially never leaves the reeds.

Some 600 to 700 pairs in Britain, in reedbeds at Minsmere, Leighton Moss and Titchwell

Bearded reedling — about 695 pairs at the BTO's 2013–17 estimate.

Quick-fire facts

•Scientific name Panurus biarmicus; biarmicus refers, misleadingly, to Bjarmaland in northern Russia
•Despite its old name, it is not a tit: it is the only species in the family Panuridae
•The male's black facial marking is a moustache, not a beard — a favourite quiz correction
•BTO BirdFacts gives about 695 breeding pairs in the UK (2013–17 estimate); the Rare Breeding Birds Panel's recent five-year mean is a little over 600
•Green-listed in Birds of Conservation Concern 5 (2021), but still on Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 as the 'bearded tit'
•In autumn it switches from insects to reed seeds, and grows a gritty gizzard lining to mill them, shedding it again in spring
•It is sedentary and confined to reedbeds, so severe winters and reedbed loss hit it hard; key sites are Minsmere, Titchwell, Leighton Moss and the Tay reedbeds
•In autumn, parties 'erupt' vertically above the reeds in a behaviour known as 'pinging up' before dispersing
•It can raise three or even four broods in a season, which lets it recover fast after hard winters

Drill it — 8 cards

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Sources

British Trust for Ornithology — BirdFacts: Bearded Tit
RSPB — Bearded Tit