Cape Penduline Tit (Anthoscopus minutus)

Cover image of Cape Penduline Tit by Roy Earle – Karas, Namibia

The Cape Penduline Tit belongs to the Family REMIZIDAE (Penduline Tits). These are tiny passerine birds related to the true tits but with finer, sharply pointed bills. Their wings are short and rounded, and their short tails are mostly notched. The common name of these birds derives from the globular suspended nest that most of them build. Some of these nests are unmatched in their ability to deceive predators. A conspicuous side entrance leads to a shallow false cavity, and the entry to the true nest chamber is a tube that, when not being used, lies flattened as the roof of the false entrance. This family comprises 11 species from 3 genera. 2 species occur in southern Africa.

Identification

The Cape Penduline Tit is one of the smallest bird species in southern Africa.

The sexes are alike. In adults, the forehead and short supercilium are mottled black and white, colour extending back into short supercilium. A narrow black eye stripe extends from the lores to just behind the eye. The cheeks and ear coverts are whitish-grey. The rest of the upper parts are pale brownish grey. The tail is darker greyish-brown with buffy tips. The chin and throat are white and the breast, belly and undertail coverts are pale buffy yellow. Colouration of the bill varies from grey to greyish-black. The eyes are pale brown, surrounded by an indistinct whitish eye ring. The legs range in colour from black to dark blueish-grey.

Juveniles are like adults, but their upper parts are browner and their underparts are paler yellow. Additionally, the edges of the flight and tail feathers are washed pale yellow.

The Cape Penduline Tit is most likely to be mistaken for the similarly sized Grey Penduline Tit (Anthoscopus caroli). The latter has a plain buff (not black-and-white) forehead and buff (not pale yellow) underparts. The Yellow-bellied Eremomela (Eremomela icteropygialis) is also similar, but has a plain grey forehead, and a grey (not pale yellow) breast and a longer bill.

Status and Distribution

The Cape Penduline Tit is locally common and near-endemic to southern Africa. It ranges from south-western Angola, across much of Namibia, throughout Botswana, south-western Zimbabwe and most of South Africa, except for the Limpopo lowveld, most of Mpumalanga, the eastern Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, and the north-eastern parts of the Eastern Cape. The Cape Penduline Tit is also absent from Lesotho.

The Cape Penduline Tit is not threatened. It remains widespread and responds positively to bush encroachment from overgrazing in drier areas.

Habitat

The Cape Penduline Tit is found in several arid and semi-arid habitats throughout the region, particularly succulent and Nama Karoo shrublands and Kalahari thornveld. In the Fynbos biome, it is confined to lowland renosterveld and coastal strandveld. It is not found in mountain fynbos. In the Eastern Cape province, the Cape Penduline Tit is also found in Vachellia karoo thickets along watercourses. In the dwarf dwarf shrublands of the Karoo, it is most partial to areas of taller shrubs, especially along drainage lines.

Behaviour

The Cape Penduline Tit is resident and locally nomadic in response to rainfall. It is most often found in small family groups of up to 8 birds, rarely more. It is occasionally found in pairs. Groups are smallest in the non-breeding season.

Cape Penduline Tits roost in the nest, sometimes also in old Southern Masked Weaver nests. During the breeding season, 4 to 8 birds may roost in 1 nest. After breeding, up to 18 birds may roost in a single nest.

Cape Penduline Tits forage in family groups, venturing up to 1.5 km from the roost nest. They forage among the branches of shrubs and trees, gleaning insects from leaves, twigs, and bark. They occasionally hang upside down to access hard-to-reach places. The Cape Penduline Tit probes galls and searches spider webs. Large food items are held with 1 foot and torn into smaller pieces.

The diet consists of insects like beetles and caterpillars, including their eggs and larvae, as well as spiders. They also consume small fruits, including those of honey-thorns (Lycium spp).

The Cape Penduline Tit is monogamous and nests solitarily. They are facultative cooperative breeders. The nest is built by both sexes and takes around 1 month to construct. Following nest destruction by a predator or severe weather, a replacement nest may be constructed.

The nest is an oval bag, built of plant down, especially the pappuses of Asclepiadaceae, Karoo rosemary/Kapokbos (Eriocephalus spp) and the Camphor Bush Tarchonanthus camphoratus, as well as the fur of hares and the wool of Angora goats and sheep. It is bound together with spider webs. The outside is sometimes decorated with spider egg capsules. The nest is usually whitish, but may be almost black where Karakul and Nama sheep occur, or a patchwork of white, brown and black wool.

Near the top is a thin-walled, soft and collapsible entrance spout, below which is a small, curved ledge ca 30 mm wide, used as perch by incoming bird as it opens entrance spout with 1 foot. Opening closes automatically, forming roof over ledge, creating ‘false entrance’. Usually attached by top and sides with spider web to upright or drooping slender branches inside thorny tree or bush; in Karoo and Namib Desert, sometimes in Reedy Milkweed Asclepias buchenaviana. In Karoo, usually 1-3 m above ground; elsewhere up to 7 m.

In the winter rainfall region of the Western Cape province, egglaying has been recorded from July to November but runs from September to March across the rest of its range. Breeds in response to rainfall.

4 to 7 plain white eggs are laid per clutch at daily intervals. The incubation period lasts up to15 days and is done by both sexes.

Newly hatched young naked; body, head and legs orange, bill pale yellow, gape bright yellow. Nestling period 16-22 days. Young fed by ads and 1-2 helpers. Fledglings from first brood roost in nest at night with eggs and young of second brood.

Frequently double-brooded; Nests destroyed by Streaky-headed Seedeater in E Cape, and by Malachite and Southern Double-collared Sunbirds in W Cape.

Further Resources

This species text is adapted from the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1), 1997.

The use of photographs by Alan Manson, Colin Summersgill, Johan van Rooyen, Karis Daniel, Lance Robinson, Mark Stanton, Ryan Tippett, Sybrand Venter, and Zenobia van Dyk is acknowledged.

Other common names: Kaapse kapokvoël (Afrikaans); Unogushana, Unothoyi (Xhosa); Rémiz de Carol (French); Kaapse Kapokmees (Dutch); Weißstirn-Beutelmeise (German); Pássaro-do-algodão do Cabo (Portuguese).

Recommended citation format: Tippett RM 2026. Cape Penduline Tit Anthoscopus minutus. Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at https://thebdi.org/2026/08/12/cape-penduline-tit-anthoscopus-minutus/

A list of bird species in this format is available here.

Bird identification, birding