Red-listed willow tit breed at Wearside wetland reserve

Seven red-listed willow tit – the UK’s fastest declining resident bird species – have successfully hatched and fledged at WWT Washington Wetland Centre.

The young birds, which left the nest in May, are the offspring of an adult willow tit pair, which were ringed on the Wearside reserve last winter as part of an ongoing species recovery research project involving WWT Washington, Newcastle University and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).

Wardens on the 100-acre site had been tracking the movements of the male and female as they explored potential nesting spots in early spring, and were delighted when they finally began excavating an old tree stump.

The team quickly set up a camera at the nesting chamber and were rewarded with footage of eight willow tit eggs in the nest – seven of which went on to hatch and fledge.

Their success marks the first major milestone in the ongoing project, which is helping to conserve WWT Washington’s current willow tit population while learning more about its behaviour and movements.

Other aims include trying to estimate the current local population size, identifying key existing nest sites and establishing new ones, determining the reasons behind nest failure and gauging the abundance of nearby competitor species.

WWT Washington reserve warden Andrew Diamond, part of the team working on the project on the ground, said: “We managed to ring three adult willow tit last winter during a public ringing session, which was part of our ongoing willow tit conservation project.

“Two of those birds – with red-over-white (R/W) and red-over-yellow (R/Y, above) colour rings – were then captured together by our trail cameras checking out potential nesting sites.

“From the eight eggs laid, seven successfully hatched around May 12 and they all went on to fledge on the morning of May 29, after seventeen days of being looked after by mam.”

One of the keys to the project’s success so far has been its Citizen Science element, with the North East public reporting sightings of elusive willow tit both on site at WWT Washington and in the surrounding area.

Andrew added: “Before the project began, we already knew we had a small population of willow tit here on the reserve and we manage our wet woodlands and other habitats to encourage them to stay.

“But now, thanks to our visitors and members supplying us with sightings data – as well as the wider project team’s help with monitoring and analysing camera footage – we’re starting to build a much better picture of that population and have been able to identify some key willow tit hot spots on site.

“Closely observing the willow tits going about their business through the breeding season has given us some invaluable knowledge that we can use going forward whilst developing willow tit habitat.

“We have realised that we have great tracts of foraging areas throughout our reserve, but not so many areas where willow tit would feel comfortable and secure enough to attempt raising their young.

“Now that we have witnessed an extremely successful willow tit union, leading to the subsequent fledging of a full brood of chicks, we know a little bit more about how we can structure habitat to be potential nest sites for our resident red-listed little wonder.”

The project is also trialling a number of new bespoke nest box designs – both for willow tit and other competitor species – to see if they have an impact on willow tit nesting success.

WWT Washington’s reserve placement student Emily Chubb led a group of volunteers in helping to build some of the boxes, which she said had been an incredibly rewarding task.

“It has been a really exciting part of my placement to get involved with the willow tit project,” she said.

“A big part of this has been building the willow tit boxes and throughout the winter, we would spend our Sundays in the workshop alongside our hard-working volunteering group, allowing us to learn as we go.

“Using knowledge about areas that are preferable to willow tits, as well as our own sightings, we put out many of our boxes in strategic places across site.

“These were then checked and monitored with camera traps, and seeing some interest from willow tits in the boxes we built over the following months was very rewarding for both me and the volunteers.”