Dartford Warbler

I had some magnificent views of a pair of Dartford Warbler today. Dartford Warblers are weird little birds, very small, weighing about the same as a wren at 10grams, they are tiny and vulnerable being at the most northerly edge of their European range here in the UK. They are roughly the same size as a Long tail Tit and with the same kind of long tail of course. However they frequently cock their tails. In common with other closely related members of their family "Sylviidae" such as Sardinian Warblers, they have a bright red fleshy ring around the eye. They always look fierce especially the more strongly marked males who also raise the head feathers in to a kind of flatish crest. In the photo below, that I took in June 2008, you cam see this. Please don't disturb these birds if you know where they are.

Heres a list of their main diagnostic features.

Yellow legs. Red Eye ring.
Yellow base to the bill, tipped with black.
Wine red underbelly which matches the colour of heather flowers.
Long ragged, often cocked tail.
Small like a long tailed tit.
Found on heathland where they often feed and sing from the tops of the gorse.

They are schedule 1. bird and therefore afforded very special protection especially at their nest sites. Please don't disturb them. It was interesting today to see them in a pair, I could clearly make out the difference between the sexes. I haven't read before that they stay in pairs throughout the non breeding season but it certainly appeared that way. Another interesting fact is that they are frequently found in the company of Stonechats and so it proved today with the pair definitely moving down the strip of gorse on the edge of a track, with a pair of Stonechats. I was pleased to see them today but only post the photos out of interest and as a record, as you can see from the photo above when I was much closer, todays pictures are not as good as they could be. I hadn't deliberately set out to photograph Dartfords but when I saw them as I waited for Stonechats to pop in to view, it was a nice surprise to see them as they have been decimated in the last few years.