Nature always manages to surprise us with details and colors that force our admiration. If you thought you had seen it all, maybe you didn’t know about this charming, multi-colored bird. You read that right: a bird with colorful feathers, with a thousand shades! It is called Leptopoecile Sophia , i.e. Sophie’s tit, a passerine bird belonging to the Aegithalidae family. Male specimens have multi-colored plumage, which is very reminiscent of the colors of the rainbow, while female individuals are characterized by softer colors, in which brown-gray tones dominate.
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image credit: Reddit
This very pretty sparrow measures between 8 and 10 cm long and weigh 6 to 8 grams. As we have already mentioned, the plumage of Sophie’s tit has sexual dichromatism, so the color of its plumage varies depending on the gender. However, in both sexes, the bill and legs are always blackish, while the eyes are reddish-brown.
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image credit: Flickr / Imran Shah
The diet of this cute passerine bird is mainly based on insects , spiders, and small invertebrates, but also seeds and berries, especially during the winter period. They are diurnal birds, who like to spend their days among the branches of trees or among the bushes with their loved ones or their family. Sophie’s tits are monogamous and begin to breed in mid-May (the breeding season ends around mid-June).
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image credit: Reddit
The female lays 2 to 5 eggs, which are incubated for about 2 weeks; when they hatch, both parents provide food for the young, which stay for more than 20 days in their nest before abandoning it and “taking flight” definitively.
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image credit: Reddit
Sadly, this isn’t the typical sparrow you’ll see on your patio or balcony every morning. The habitat of this small bird is characterized by mountainous areas, wooded or not; the areas where it can be found are southeastern Kazakhstan, the Tibetan Plateau, including the slopes of the Himalayas, down to Kashmir.
A very special sparrow!
source used: Wikipedia