Firecrest

• GeneralOne of the smallest birds in Europe, at 5 grams, with a white stripe over the eye.
• It weighs five grams: a quarter as much as a sparrow, and half its length.
• Its calls are so high-pitched that many people stop hearing them as they get older, which is why the bird goes unnoticed.
• It takes the small invertebrates trapped in spiders' webs, and there are reports of firecrests that end up tangled in them.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat & environment

Pine and fir woods and mixed forest

Gestation / incubation

14-16 days, by the female alone. The chicks fledge at three weeks

Litter / clutch size

7-12 tiny white or cream eggs with variable speckling, in a spherical, semi-domed nest of moss and lichen; it may have two clutches

Sources consulted: SEO/BirdLife (ficha y III Atlas de las aves en época de reproducción en España); IUCN Red List; Asturnatura; Pérez-Granados y Serrano-Davies 2014, Enciclopedia Virtual de los Vertebrados Españoles (MNCN-CSIC); Martens y Päckert 2006, Handbook of the Birds of the World vol. 11

Best time: All year round; in autumn and winter it joins the mixed tit flocks that move through the wood