Twite

The Twite Carduelis flavirostris is a small curry-coloured finch, closely related to, and not unlike, the more familiar Linnet. In summer they are to be found breeding in mountains (notably the Pennines), in Scotland and on the Scottish Islands (Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland).

A Twite, the curry-coloured relative of the Linnet

In winter they descend from the hills, and come further south, to feed on the seeds of saltmarsh grasses around the East and West coasts of England. At the end of my street in Askam there is a nice area of saltmarsh that attracts a flock of up to 200 Twite every winter.

Saltmarsh at Askam. In winter, Twite feed among the boats

It has always been of interest to ornithologists to know if the birds appearing at any one marsh in winter are from a particular breeding population. For example, do the birds that breed in the Pennines favour the Norfolk or the Lancashire marshes in winter? And do the birds from the Hebrides go to different places from the Pennine birds, or do they all mix up?

A group of Twite feeding on a saltmarsh in Winter. But where do they come from?

This is a case where ringing the birds will help us to understand their movements. Fortunately flocks of Twite can be easily attracted to food (niger seed is ideal) and can be caught by a Whoosh! net. It is called a Whoosh! net because the net is set under tension from rubber cords; when birds are in the baited area, the trigger is pulled and the rubber flies the net over the feeding flock, making a Whoosh! sound as it goes. On a good day, up to 60 birds can be caught with one pull of the trigger.

The effectiveness of the ringing is greatly improved if birds are additionally fitted with coloured rings, using a combination of colours that indicate the location and year of ringing. For example, birds ringed at Askam last winter had a yellow ring fitted. The ring colours can be observed as the birds come down to feed.

Twite feeding. The yellow ring can clearly be seen on the bird on the left

Photo Ken Hindmarch

So what have we discovered? Well, we know that the breeding populations are generally faithful to their wintering grounds. Birds which were colour-ringed at Askam and Lancashire have been seen in the Hebrides, whilst the Pennine breeders favour the saltmarshes of Eastern England. However, there have been instances of birds being seen on both sides of the country, so there is clearly still plenty to learn as we continue with this research.