Among the most delightful of British birds, long-tailed tits are black and white with a pink glow on their wings and flanks, and flit through the woods in flocks looking for insects. Although they have startlingly long tails, they have tiny bodies, and are very vulnerable to the cold.

Fortunately, the recent mild winters have pushed their numbers up; even the cold snap last month did not do them much harm. This increase in population pressure is perhaps one reason that they have been coming into gardens much more and hanging on the feeders.

At one time they were more often to be seen passing through trees at the end of gardens. They are not the only birds to have taken time to become aware of garden feeders. Ten years ago it was rather unusual to see goldfinches on these dangling larders, but now their gold-barred wings are always flashing around them. Siskins, which are little green finches, have only very recently started appearing regularly at them.

Now long-tailed tits have evidently made the big discovery. It has been suggested that the provision of foods other than the traditional peanuts has attracted them, and certainly they like sunflower seeds and fat bars. But they also cluster constantly round peanuts, their tails pointing in all directions.

It is surprising that their tiny beaks can cope with hard peanuts — and that was thought to be one reason why they did not come for them.

Their beaks are so fine that they can pick up spiders’ webs to bind their mossy nests together. Now they have shown that peanuts do not defeat them. Birds continue to astonish us with what they can do.

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