A truly sedentary species, the bearded tits are insectivores in summer, and eat the seeds from reeds (rhyme alert) in winter.

Probably the most important Danish wetlands area is the vast location known as “Vejlerne”, owned by the Danish bird- and wildlife protection foundation AVJF, in the far NW corner of Jutland. Now “vast” in this context should be considered in Danish terms – we consider it BIG, but it isn’t big on a, say, Yellowstone scale – think 5600 hectares, or 56 km². Up there, birds and wildlife have had a permanent sanctuary since the area was acquired by AVJF in 1993.

This means there are very many birds, and whenever I’m in the ‘hood I like to check out some of the hotspots. On Sunday afternoon I was driving home from a paragliding site near there, and fortunately I had my bird photo gear with me. The light was perfect, and I had decided to simply be patient, and wait until sunset to see if the bearded tits would come out to play – this gallery is the result. Remember to click on the first image to see them all in full size, and if browsing on a Windows platform consider hitting f11 to get the full viewing experience.

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Busy foraging – but if you weigh just 6-8g then your energy loss on a cold day is phenomenal.

The males have the beards…

…and look quite stern from some angles.

The girls are a little less flashy.

Very, very pleased with the light in these shots.

Notice the seeds in her beak.

Good thing these little birds aren’t keen to go on big overseas expeditions – the wings look almost ridiculously small, and true enough they aren’t really big aerial stars. But down among the reeds, short wings are just what a little bird needs.

the bird in its environment.