Firecrest
Regulus ignicapillus
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Distribution Britain 99 (+395%) Ireland 0
Numbers breeding: Britain 60 Ireland 0 European status: 3,800,000 (0% in Britain and Ireland) British population trend: fluctuating — but established How likely are you to record it? 1 square (0.0%) Ranked 190= |
These tiny birds were first satisfactorily proved to breed in Britain in the New Forest in 1962 and they were found in Hertfordshire, Kent and Dorset by 1970. It became clear that the colonisation had spread much wider with breeding recorded at many sites from South Wales to the Wash and southwards as well as other parts of Wales and north to Lancashire and Derbyshire. There are no signs of breeding in Scotland or Ireland. Numbers are very different from year to year with a maximum of 131 in 1989 and a minimum of 19 in 1992 (after a cold winter) being the extremes for 1988 to 1997. This seems now to be an established British breeding bird.
From
The
State of the Nations Birds
Copyright © 2000 by Chris Mead