Form
Verb-ing + …
(Used for active meanings)
Feeling tired, I went to bed early.
The man wearing the red hat is my brother.
Meanings
To make sentences more concise.
Participle clauses are very common replacements for defining relative clauses to sound more formal and less repetitive.
The girl who is sitting by the window → The girl sitting by the window.
The car which was stolen from the street → The car stolen from the street.