Hi Lizz,
Crested Tit is pretty unlikely. AFAIK it has never been recorded in Caithness. It certainly isn't mentioned in Birds of Caithness (SAMM 2008) which summarises historical records from the statistical accounts of the 18th Century up to the present day. Neither has Crested Tit been reported in the data received for the new BTO Atlas, fieldwork for which has been underway since 2007.
http://www.bto.org/birdatlas/index.htm
Crested Tit is extremely sedentary amd in the UK is rarely reported outside of it's core range of Caledonian forest though there are a few extralimital records. Here's a link to the distribution data held on NBN.
http://data.nbn.org.uk/interactive/m...MSYS0001688298
The closest I've seen one was at Balblair Wood just South of Golspie and that was some time ago (20/10/96). Many species that do not have obvious crests can appear to show a crest particularly if alarmed. But you never know, maybe you have a first for the county.
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