Just passing through or here for the season?
THIS column continues from last week’s investigation of the different ways in which birds migrate and the reasons why.
Summer visitors are birds that arrive in spring from the south to breed. Many are insect eaters.
They spend summer here, then they – and their new young – return south in autumn.
They include swallows and martins, warblers, flycatchers, wheatears, whinchats, redstarts, nightingales, yellow wagtails, tree pipits, cuckoos, swifts, nightjars, turtle doves, hobbies, ospreys, terns and Manx shearwaters.
Many other seabirds, such as puffins and gannets, also arrive on our shores in spring after spending the winter at sea.
Winter visitors are birds that arrive in autumn from the north and east to spend the winter in the UK, where the weather is milder and food is easier to find.
In spring, they return to their breeding quarters.
They include fieldfares, redwings, bramblings, Bewick’s and whooper swans and many kinds of duck, geese and wading bird.
Many water birds also spend the winter on the sea around the UK coast, including common scoters, great northern divers and red-necked grebes.