A few favoured spots in Scotland are the only resorts of this bird in our islands.

It is a forest species, haunting pine woods, from which it seldom wanders far. Like the Marsh Tit, it frequently excavates its own nesting-hole, which is generally at no great distance from the ground. In all its actions and habits it resembles its congeners.

The sexes are alike. The general colour above is olive brown, beneath white, turning to buff on the flanks. The feathers of the head are black, broadly edged with white and prolonged into a conspicuous crest. A black streak runs backwards from the eye on each side to join its fellow on the nape, whence it turns forward and encircling the cheeks, which are white mottled with black, joins up with the black chin. Length 4·5 in.; wing 2·5 in.

The young are duller and have hardly any crest.