White-crowned Penduline Tit

The white-crowned penduline tit is a very small bird, only about 10 centimetres long. It resembles the penduline tit in shape and size but has a thinner bill and less strong legs. The male has a whitish head with a narrow black face mask and a black band on the nape, separated from the chestnut upperparts by a white collar. The underside is whitish with a few chestnut spots. It is paler than the penduline tit and, unlike it, never chestnut on the head. The female is duller and paler. (Swedish Wikipedia, general species account)

It occurs in both lowland and mountain areas, breeding in riverside woods and scrub and locally in village and small-town gardens, and it seems to depend on willow and poplar for nest material. It breeds in May and June, building a hanging, ball-shaped nest in a tree, usually six to eight metres up at the end of a horizontal branch, and lays three to nine eggs, with the male feeding the female on the nest. It eats insects and spiders, and seeds in winter; in northern Mongolia the food is willow seeds. (Swedish Wikipedia, general species account)