Delight at chick success for endangered Pied Flycatchers at Lydford Gorge

They are further thrilled to have discovered that one pair of the birds, who were born in different parts of Devon, have paired up and are now busy raising their

Lewis Clarke

13:17, 20 JUN 2019

Two pairs of rare Pied Flycatchers, which are on the ‘Birds of Conservation Concern’ red list, are successfully breeding at Lydford Gorge in Devon, thanks to work done by rangers at National Trust.

They are further thrilled to have discovered that one pair of the birds, who were born in different parts of Devon, have paired up and are now busy raising their young at Lydford Gorge on Dartmoor.

The Devon pair of birds were ringed in 2014, and the National Trust has been able to discover that the male was born near Widecombe-on-the-Moor and the female hails from South Molton.  As Pied Flycatchers migrate thousands of miles during the winter before returning to the UK to mate in the spring, it’s not known how or when they paired up, however, the Trust is delighted to see these endangered birds doing well after careful work to attract them to the area has worked.

The baby birds will start to be seen taking their first forays outside the nest in June; however keen bird spotters can come and look out for the birds at Lydford Gorge, who are expected to stay there until late August when they fly south again to the African continent.

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For these birds, climate change spells a rise in fatal conflicts

January 10, 2019, Cell Press

Researchers have found yet another way in which climate change has been detrimental to migrating birds. As European winters have become warmer, pied flycatchers traveling from Africa over long distances to reach breeding grounds in the Netherlands are arriving to find that resident great tits have already claimed nesting sites for the season. As a result, the number of flycatchers killed in great tit nests has risen dramatically. The work appears January 10 in the journal Current Biology.

"When pied flycatchers and great tits are more synchronous in their timing, this leads to a higher level of conflict over nesting sites," says Jelmer Samplonius, who did the work at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, and is now at the University of Edinburgh, UK.

Samplonius's team got interested in the dynamics between pied flycatchers and great tits in part because both species rely on a short burst of food resources—caterpillars—to raise their young. When the birds' timing is well matched with the caterpillar peak, they are more successful in raising their offspring.

Given the reliance on the same food and nesting resources, it was clear the two species interacted quite a bit. Pied flycatchers were known for trying to take over great tit nests. They also eavesdropped on resident great tits to gain information the long-distance migrants otherwise lack about local conditions.

After years of careful monitoring, Samplonius says, "it was hard not to notice" that many flycatchers were dying in great tit nests. In other years, "virtually none" met that same fate. Could synchrony between the two competitor species explain the variation?

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Rare birds spotted at Lydford Gorge

Monday, 3 July 2017 

 
A RARE pair of RSPB red-listed pied flycatchers have been spotted by thrilled bird watchers making their home in specially made bird boxes near the bird hide at the National Trust’s Lydford Gorge.

Migrating from sub-Saharan Africa, usually in the Congo basin, the pied flycatchers move to the coast of West Africa in the spring, before returning to the UK. It’s believed the pair has adopted a nest at Lydford due to work done by National Trust rangers to manage the habitat for them.

The birds tend to like mature woodland, similar to that at Lydford Gorge. Trees at the gorge weren’t cut down during the war effort as it was too steep to get the wood out.

National Trust rangers, along with volunteers and schools including Lydford and Lamerton, have built specialised bird boxes with specific sized holes to attract the birds.

Pied flycatchers are red-listed by the RSPB. Working with Lydford Primary School pupils, rangers have been monitoring the bird boxes occupied by these and other species.



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