Fri 9th Feb in the afternoon - my husband saw about 4 white capped, black eye stripe, tit like birds. The rest of the colouring was similar to long tailed tits but with larger bodies and shorter tails. Undulating flight just keeping 15-30 ft in front along the fieldside hedgrow - a few miles North of Bristol. Looking thru books and AA Birds CD rom the only likeness he could pick out was the Penduline tit. Was he seeing things?
I would think that what he saw was actually a party of Long-tailed Tits. I've never seen Long-tailed Tit and Penduline Tit together, but the latter look if anything smaller than Long-taileds, not bigger-bodied. Also, Penduline Tit is basically a chestnut-coloured bird - it wouldn't strike you as anything like the same general colour as Long-tailed.
Jason
Hi Ndalv,
I would tend to agree that the birds were most likely Long-tailed Tits,as a)the two species look quite different from each other and b)Penduline Tit is an official rarity in Britain,so far less likely.
Harry H