Birds of the Alder Coast

010 cm

Alder Kinglet Regulus alnorum

Passerine · 9 cm

• Crown stripe saffron, flared when agitated; the single most reliable mark.
• Two thin wing-bars, the lower broader and cream rather than white.
• Feeds by hovering at the leaf tip — rarely still for more than two seconds.
• Eye-ring broken at the rear; separates it from the Marsh Kinglet.

Voice
see-see-see-tsidderit — thin, rising, the terminal flourish dropped in autumn.

010 cm

Pied Godwit Limosa pica

Wader · 41 cm

• Bill faintly upturned, pink at the base for two-thirds its length.
• In flight: broad white wing-stripe and a square black tail-band.
• Feeds by deep vertical probing, often to the eye, in soft grey mud.
• Winter birds lose all rufous; look for the clean grey breast and dark loral line.

Voice
wick-a wick-a on the flush; a low nasal gerr from feeding flocks.

020 cm

Slate Harrier Circus ardesiacus

Raptor · 52 cm

• Flight low and tilting, wings held in a shallow V above the reed tops.
• Adult male ash-grey with jet primaries and a white rump patch.
• Female and juvenile brown; juvenile warmer below, with an unstreaked belly.
• Owl-like facial disc visible at close range — an aid to hunting by ear.

Voice
Largely silent away from the nest; a chattering chek-ek-ek-ek at the food pass.

010 cm

Ember Finch Pyrrhula favilla

Finch · 16 cm

• Bill short, blunt and blue-grey — built for alder cones, not seed heads.
• Male scarlet from throat to vent; female the colour of wet brick.
• Undulating flight with a hard flick at the top of each bound.
• Almost always in pairs, even in the deep midwinter flocks.

Voice
A soft descending peu, easily lost in wind; song a creaking, unmusical warble.

010 cm

Sedge Nightjar Caprimulgus carecis

Nightjar · 27 cm

• At rest lies lengthwise along a bough, invisible until it opens an eye.
• Male shows white primary spots and white tail corners in display flight.
• Bill minute; gape enormous and framed with stiff rictal bristles.
• Active from forty minutes after sunset; hunts moths over open water.

Voice
A dry mechanical churr on two pitches, carried a mile on still nights; wing-clap at the turn.

010 cm

Marsh Whistler Cistothorus salinus

Passerine · 11 cm

• Tail cocked hard over the back, barred black on chestnut.
• Long pale supercilium running well past the eye — see figure detail.
• Builds up to nine dummy nests; only one is ever lined with down.
• Keeps to the lower half metre of reed; flushes only at the last step.

Voice
An explosive dry rattle, then three clear whistles: tsuk-tsuk-tseee-tsee-tsee.