Back in May, a lone female bearded tit was seen on the reserve, this was an unusual sighting for Otmoor as these reedbed birds are normally only seen on the reserve during the winter months. We assumed it was just an interesting out-of-season sighting until last week when Peter Coombes, a regular visitor to the moor got some photos of two young bearded tits. This is amazing news as from their plumage you can tell they are still too young to have moved away from the nest site. It looks like this is the first time bearded tits have bred in the Oxfordshire, so it is really fantastic. They tend to prefer more mature reedbeds, which may explain why it’s taken a few years for breeding to occur on the moor and they can have up to 3 or 4 broods of chicks in a season so there may well be more little beardies on the way.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/b/beardedtit/index.aspx