Late birds fail to catch ‘worms’

Long-distant migrants under pressure

Some woodland birds in the UK are in sharp decline. These notably include long-distance migrants such as garden warbler, spotted flycatcher, willow warbler and wood warbler.

On the other hand some woodland birds that are residents or short distance migrants are increasing, including blackcap, blue tit, chiffchaff, coal tit, great spotted woodpecker, great tit, green woodpecker, goldcrest, robin, treecreeper and wren.

One idea is that long-distance migrants may be under particular pressure, possibly due to problems where they over-winter or on migration.

However, another thought is that long-distance migrants may be experiencing problems while here in the UK, either as a result of habitat change or through competition with residents. And it seems differences in the timing of nature’s calendar may have a lot to answer for.

Researchers have just published an important scientific paper, suggesting similar declines in long-distance migrants in Dutch woods are mainly due to them not having adapted the timing of their migration sufficiently to stay in synch with the appearance of leaf-eating caterpillars.

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