January is here and many of you will be partaking in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch counting the different birds coming to your school grounds.
For this month, we are setting you the challenge of counting your Winter Birds in your grounds. Whilst you’re counting and identifying the different species, we want you to focus on these winter migrant birds.
What is a migrant bird?
Migrant birds are those who move around at different times of the year. For example, we see Chiffchaffs in the UK during the summer but they migrate to Spain and Europe for the winter as it’s warmer. We also see this with other species such as Great Northern Divers, these are diving seabirds who hang around the southern UK coasts during the winter but migrate to Scotland and Northern Europe to breed.
Who to look for?
We want you to keep a look-out for these species below and tick off any you find! Don’t forget you can submit them to national databases such as Ebird and BTO Birdtrack which helps to gather data on our British birds but will also show you trends year-on-year.
See if you can spot these four main winter migrants: Starlings, Redwing, Siskin and maybe even the rare Waxwing! There are other species you can look for such as Brambling, Woodcock, Fieldfare and Redpolls.
Don’t forget to let us know below, in the comments, what you find!
Dan Rouse 