Description:

Medium-sized to large, short-billed and fairly long-tailed tit with fluffy plumage. Mainly whitish head, with dark stripe through eye and band across nape, grey mantle, white underparts and broad white wing-bar and tips to tertials. Similar in appearance to Yellow-breasted Tit but without yellow on breast.

Distribution:

Winter vagrant to the region, with a single record from Hunza, possible in the northern border areas. Found in montane deciduous and mixed forests, also mature valley woodlands, willow scrub and bushy or shrubby areas, up to 2500m.

Behavior:

Forages at all levels in trees, usually in dense foliage, frequently in canopy and undergrowth, and on the ground. Diet comprises small invertebrates, eggs and larvae of bugs, including aphids, moths, lacewings, grasshoppers, flies, bees, wasps and ants, beetles, spiders; also seeds and some fruit, including berries of spruce, birch, buckthorn and rose.

Photo Gallery:

Range & Occurrence:

Resident Species

Summer Breeder

Winter Visitor

Passage Migrant

Distribution Map of Azure Tit in Gilgit-Baltistan (Status: )

Seasonal Occurrence of Azure Tit

Resources:

Birds of Pakistan: Helm Field Guides (R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
The Birds of Pakistan (T. J. Roberts)
Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (C. Inskipp, R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide (P. Rasmussen & J. Anderton)
Birds of India: Collins Field Guide (N. Arlott)
Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan (S. Ali & S. D. Ripley)
Handbook of the Birds of the World (https://www.hbw.com)
The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World, 6th Edition
iNaturalist BoGB (inaturalist.org/projects/birds-of-gilgit-baltistan)
Birds of Gilgit-Baltistan (http://fb.me/birdsgb)

*Gallery images on this page are shared from flickr.com, and are copyrighted to their respective creators or owners.