Not another boring little tit

A Bearded Reedling on its way from one seed head to another in the sunshine today.

Sometimes called a Bearded Tit, the bird is neither a member of the Tit family, nor paradoxically is it actually a Reedling.  

The Scientists that know about these sorts of things removed the bird from the tit family Paridae (which includes blue, great and crested tits), and instead placed it in Paradoxornithidae, the parrotbills, before further research revealed it belonged alone in its own family, Panuridae.

As a result Christmas is a much smaller affair for the bird nowadays.

I've included a female as the second extra so that you can see the quite noticeable difference in the plumage.