Sunday, August 28, 2022

Cromwell Bottom

I uploaded some of my photos of the Cromwell Bottom Tit to social media and a researcher named Richard Broughton (https://www.ceh.ac.uk/staff/richard-broughton) who wrote his PhD thesis on the identification and separation of Marsh and Willow Tit, responded identifying the bird as a juvenile Willow Tit. 

Given the dramatic decline of Willow Tit nationally, I guess it’s good they can still make the occasional appearance in our area. Not ideal when an individual of the species pair remains as silent as possible. 

2 comments:

Peter Smith said...

Thanks Daniel; that's very helpful. I thought that three of your photos on 20 August showed a pale panel on the secondaries, but I was too timid to say anything. A useful lesson!

Daniel Branch said...

Certainly, it's been an 'educational' bird. I think I've learned more about this species pair from the last week than from all my prior birding. Haha