English names: Dipper, European Dipper, White-throated Dipper.
Latin Name: Cinclus cinclus
Length: 18cm
Weight: 55-75g
Wingspan: 25-30cm
- Habitat: Fast-flowing streams and smaller rivers with exposed rocks and riffles.Also shallow rivers in broadleaf woodland or on open moorland. Needs rocky cliffs or human-made structures (bridges) for nest sites.
- Movements: Usually a ‘resident’ species (non-migratory), but some higher altitude birds move to lower areas after breeding.
- Feeding ecology: Feeds on freshwater invertebrates such as Mayfly (Ephemeroptera), Stonefly (Plecoptera), Caddis flies (Trichoptera), Dragonfly (Odonoata), flies (Diptera), beetles (Coleoptera), freshwater shrimps (Gammarus), and occasionally small fish (e.g. Cottidae).Food caught by ‘swimming’ under water (using wings) or walking underwater.Dives last for up to 10 seconds, and Dippers can dive many times per minute.
- Sounds: Male song is a high-pitched, penetrating, melodious ditty, comprising a variety of more ‘chaotic’ notes, with some repetition (sometime likened to Song Thrush Turdus philomelos). Females are less melodious, mostly producing whistles and fairly random elements. The call is a loud and often rendered as: ‘dzchit dzchit’. They also have a ‘rattling’ pair greeting call, used during courtship.
- Egg laying: late February to June.
- Breeding system: largely mostly monogamous, but some males polygynous. The nest is constructed by both partners and is 30–45 cm across, with a side entrance. It is made mostly of moss, and lined by the female with dry leaves.
- Clutch: 3 to 6 eggs (rarely 7), but normally 4 or 5. Eggs are incubated by the female when the last egg is laid.
- Incubation: eggs are incubated by the female for 15 to 18 days (max 20 days).
- Chicks: brooded by female, but fed by both parents. Leave the nest after 20 to 24 days. The fledged juveniles are fed by the parents for up to two weeks.