Scientific name:
Parus palustris

Natural spread:
Central Europe, Eastern Asia

the swamp or nun-titmouse lives in the foliage-forests of Central Europe and Eastern Asia; it is missing completely in the northern needle-forest-belt and in the dry forest-steppes Südsibiriens. Because of its conspicuous similarity in the plumage-coloring, it often is summarized to a group of gray-titmice with its twin-type, the pasture-titmouse (Parus montanus). they live in the same spread-area, but usually different biotopes, so that they give a classic example with the gray-titmice for the behavior of two twin-types. It is not to be excluded, however, that a zwischenartliche competition occurs at least in the biotopes, that live in both types together.

Characteristics Swamp and pasture-titmice are small (11,5 cm of length) and colored oberseits dun. Both have a black waiter-head (with the swamp-titmouse shiny) and a gray-black Kehlfleck. Is the underside and the head-sides weak-knows. The types let themselves the best distinguish at the voice; the chant of the swamp-titmouse is more uniform and clatters, while the pasture-titmouse whistles polysyllabic.

Way of life The swamp-titmouse is despite its name to be found in swamps not but preferentially moist forests and parks as well as wooded gardens. If sub-growth exists sufficiently, the swamp-titmouse is to be even found in deeper mountain-situations. In ground-proximity, it looks for insects, but also different hard seeds and nuts, that zerhämmert it with its strong beak. For times of need, reserve-camps are positioned, that lie hidden under the bark or between moss and lichens.

So, the swamp-titmouse can overcome also cold-periods as stand-bird. Although it itself the whole year over in the brood-area detains, only one yearly-brood is reared. From the other types, it differs in that the family holds together much longer. Together, the parents pull over the country with the boys on the food-search; only in the autumn, the brood-pair comes back to the hatchery alone. The sex-partners remain over together many years. They spend the winter in all possible hiding places.

Reproductive-biology From middle of April, the female begins with the nest-construction in an of course existing tree-cave. The cave is widened something at most to the need with the beak. The swamp-titmouse completely essentially differs from the pasture-titmouse, who makes its brood-cave in rotten wood itself, in it.

The bowl-shaped moss-nest is padded with animal-hairs and feathers. The used Niststoffe are much lighter than with the other titmice so that the nest is to be recognized easily. The 7-9 eggs in the nest are incubated by the female alone exclusively, who is fed during this time (13-17 days) of the male, however. The male takes part in the supply of the boys (nestling-duration 16-21 days) as well, that still is approximately dependent on the care of the alto-birds even after abandonment of the nest for one week.