Durham Bird Club at 50

The county avifauna, The Birds of Durham (Bowey and Newsome, 2012) records that “A public meeting in late 1974 at Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery to discuss bird watching and recording was well-attended. This was followed on 8 January 1975 by another meeting and enrolment for membership of the Durham Bird Club began shortly afterwards.”

We shall be organising various projects and events during the year to commemorate this special anniversary. These include a "Bird of the Week" feature, appearing below.

Bird of the Week - Week 8

Willow Tit – A Woodland Survivor

(Photo by Mark Harper)

Small, elusive, and in serious trouble - Willow Tits are the UK’s fastest-declining resident bird. Their numbers have plummeted across the country, and yet, County Durham remains, in relative terms, a stronghold. Why they’re holding on here better than elsewhere isn’t fully understood, but one factor could be the county’s network of old railway lines and disused industrial sites, where scrubby woodland has been left to grow undisturbed.

Unlike most tits, Willow Tits are skilled excavators, digging out their own nest cavities in rotting wood rather than relying on existing cavities, old woodpecker holes or nest boxes. But despite this adaptability, they’ve struggled in the face of habitat loss, with tidier, heavily managed landscapes offering less standing deadwood, fewer nesting sites and less cover from predators.

The definitive reasons behind the Willow Tit’s national decline aren’t fully understood and are almost certainly multi-faceted. One theory suggests that the rise in garden bird feeding in recent decades may have played a role, expanding populations of bolder species like Blue and Great Tits and, consequently, increasing competition for food, territory, and nest sites.

Telling a Willow Tit apart from the very similar Marsh Tit isn’t easy, but look for their slightly paler cheeks, bulkier build, and habit of flicking their wings as they move. Their soft, nasal “zee-zee-zur” call is often the best way to pick them out, carrying through quiet woodlands even when the birds themselves stay hidden.

If you’ve spotted a Willow Tit recently, you’ve seen something special. We’d love to know where - every record helps build a better picture of where these charismatic little birds are still holding on.

More information on Willow Tits - Local

More information on Willow Tits more widely

E-mail: durhambirdclub@gmail.com

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