10 of the World’s Smallest Birds

The Cape penduline tit — sometimes known as the southern penduline tit — is far more prodigious than the world’s tiniest bird. Grayish-yellow in color, these birds extend from the tip of South Africa all the way up into Angola in the east and Zimbabwe in the west. They make their habitats in shrub plains and deserts, roosting and making their nests in high and thorny trees. Their nests are particularly ingenious, resembling a wastebasket and including a hatch that they can pull shut with a foot.