What Do Long Tailed Tits Eat? Seasonal Diet, Feeders & Nestling Care

Watch a British hedge long enough,h and you’ll see it: a ripple of movement, a flash of pink and white, a dozen tiny birds moving through the branches as if tied together on a string. That’s a long-tailed tit flock, and it’s almost always foraging.

So what do long-tailed tits eat to fuel that constant motion? For most of the year, ar the answer is insects, spiders and their eggs. Once the weather turns cold, seeds, berries and garden suet fill the gap.

This guide covers their natural diet, seasonal changes, breeding requirements, winter survival and the feeder foods that actually work — drawing on guidance from the RSPB and the BTO.

Natural Diet in the Wild

What’s on the Menu

Long-tailed tits are near-total insectivores. They favour the eggs and larvae of moths and butterflies, along with caterpillars, aphids, beetles and small flies (BTO). Spiders form a significant part of the diet too; the birds are agile enough to pick them straight from bark and foliage. Spider silk collected while foraging is later recycled into the elastic thread that holds their nests together.

Unlike blue tits and great tits, which readily switch to peanuts and mixed seed, long-tailed tits stay closer to their insectivorous roots. They continue hunting overwintering moth and butterfly eggs in bark and buds even when a feeder is nearby. This is why a well-planted, pesticide-free garden often feeds them more effectively than any amount of shop-bought food.

The Seasonal Shift

Spring and summer bring a surge in caterpillars and aphids. Long-tailed tits time their breeding to match it. In one English county study, average first-egg dates advanced to around 6 April, nine days earlier than twenty years before, tracking milder springs (Cheshire & Wirral Bird Atlas).

By autumn, insect numbers fall, and the birds broaden their diet. Seeds, buds and berries become more important, and garden suet turns from a treat into a genuine food source. Insects remain on the menu whenever they can be found, even in December and January. Garden reporting rates usually peak in February, just before flocks split to breed — the point at which natural food is scarcest and feeders matter most.

How They Forage

Long-tailed tits rarely feed alone. Flocks of around 20 birds move through hedgerows and tree canopies in single file, each gleaning insects from twigs, bark and leaves before hopping on (Songbird Survival).

They are highly acrobatic, often hanging upside down from thin branches to reach prey other birds cannot. This constant movement also serves as defence: a scattered, noisy flock is harder for a sparrowhawk to target than a single bird sitting still.

Diet During Breeding Season

Everything changes once eggs are laid. A female lays 8–12 eggs, usually in a single clutch between late March and April, and incubates them for 15–18 days while the male brings food to her at the nest (Songbird Survival).

Chicks hatch blind, featherless, and completely dependent. For the first six days,s the female broods them almost constantly while the male forages for both her and the young (The Long-Tailed Tit Project).

From then on, both parents, and often unrelated “helper” birds, deliver food throughout most of the daylight hours. A brood of ten chicks means near-constant trips. Researchers monitoring the Sheffield study population for nearly three decades describe it as some of the most demanding parenting in UK birdlife.

At this stage the diet is almost exclusively protein: caterpillars, spiders, aphids and small insect larvae. Seeds and suet barely feature because growing chicks need the amino acids that only animal protein supplies.

Long-tailed tits are Britain’s only cooperatively breeding songbird. Individuals whose own nests have failed often help raise a relative’s chicks (RSPB). Up to six adults can end up feeding a single brood, spreading the heavy workload.

A long-running University of Sheffield study in the Rivelin Valley (running since 1994) shows how high the losses can be: in one recent season, 122 nests were monitored and only 25 fledged successfully — roughly 80% lost to predation or weather. Successful nests, however, can send around ten well-fed fledglings into the local population, allowing numbers to recover quickly.

Winter Diet & Survival Strategies

Once breeding ends in July, flocks reform, usually as extended family groups, and stay together until the following spring. Flocks range from about 3 to 15 or more birds. Related individuals tend to stick together.

Food becomes harder to find. Seeds, buds and any surviving insects make up the bulk of the winter diet, and garden suet becomes genuinely important. The birds actively search bark crevices and dormant buds for overwintering insect eggs and larvae — often the only reliable protein source in January and February.

Flocking matters more than ever. More eyes mean predators are spotted sooner. At nig, ht the birds huddle shoulder to shoulder on a branch to share body heat. For a bird weighing as little as 7 g that carries almost no fat reserve, this is essential. Dominant birds claim the warmer, more sheltered spots within the huddle (BTO).

A run of hard frosts can be fatal. UK numbers are known to dip after severe winters before recovering over subsequent breeding seasons (Vine House Farm). This is exactly when garden feeding makes the biggest difference.

What to Offer on Garden Feeders

Long-tailed tits are increasingly regular garden visitors: they’ve placed in the top ten of the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch every year since 2023, and were spotted in more than a quarter of gardens during the 2025 count (RSPB). Getting the food right makes a real difference to whether they stay, and to how quickly the whole flock finds your garden in the first place.

Best Feeder Types

Hanging mesh feeders and suet-log feeders suit long-tailed tits best. They are used to clinging and hanging rather than sitting on a table or ground tray (Songbird Survival). For peanut feeders, a 6 mm mesh size works well: wide enough for birds to peck kibbled nuts, yet narrow enough to stop whole pieces falling free.

A camera feeder (such as Birdfy) can automatically identify species and capture the flock’s brief visits — useful given how quickly they move on.

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Foods to Avoid

• Whole peanuts during the breeding season (a choking risk for chicks)
• Mouldy or wet seed, which can carry harmful bacteria
• Bread, which offers next to no nutritional value
• Salted or dry-roasted nuts intended for human snacking

Nutritional Notes & Health

Variety matters more than any single “best” food. Suet supplies concentrated energy, sunflower hearts and peanut granules add protein and fat, and mealworms come closest to replicating natural insect prey. Offering a mix across the year mirrors the shift they make in the wild.

Feeder hygiene is critical. Wet, caked seed and dirty surfaces can spread disease. Long-tailed tits arrive in tight flocks and feed shoulder to shoulder, so a single contaminated perch can affect an entire group within minutes.

Clean feeders every one to two weeks with hot water and a stiff brush. Move feeder positions occasionally to prevent droppings building up underneath.

FAQs about Diet of Long-Tailed Tits

Do long-tailed tits eat bread?

No. Bread offers almost no nutritional value and can fill birds up without providing the fat or protein they need, particularly in winter.

What do baby long-tailed tits eat?

Nestlings are fed almost exclusively on insects and spiders, mainly caterpillars, aphids and moth larvae, delivered by both parents and any helper birds (The Long-Tailed Tit Project). No seed or suet is involved at this stage.

How many chicks does a long-tailed tit pair raise?

A single clutch usually produces 8 to 12 eggs, though nest predation is high enough that many attempts fail (Songbird Survival). Successful nests, however, can fledge close to ten chicks at once, which is why flocks swell noticeably by midsummer.

Will long-tailed tits use a bird table?

Rarely. They favour hanging feeders they can cling to over flat surfaces, and they don’t use nest boxes either, since they build their own domed nests (Haith’s UK).

What do long-tailed tits eat in a typical UK garden?

What do long-tailed tits eat once they reach a feeder? Suet, sunflower hearts, peanut granules and mealworms are the most reliable options, with suet and mealworms particularly valuable in late winter and during the breeding season.

To Sum Up

Long-tailed tits eat mostly insects and spiders year-round. Seeds, buds and garden suet become more important in hard weather. Breeding season tips the balance strongly toward pure protein because chicks cannot grow on anything less. Winter survival depends on flocking, shared body heat and whatever food, wild or offered, they can find.

For UK gardens, the practical takeaway is simple: offer suet, sunflower hearts, peanut granules and mealworms from a hanging feeder near cover. Keep it clean. Do that, and there’s a good chance you’ll see that flash of pink and white working through your hedge again before long.