🔍 Overview Renowned for its rich, powerful song, the Nightingale is a special summer visitor to Sussex. A priority species with strongholds in dense thickets and scrubland. 🪶 Key Identification Features Size: Small (15–17 cm)Plumage: Warm brown with reddish tailDistinctive Marks: Unmarked face, plain plumageBill: Fine, darkTail: Reddish and roundedFlight: Low and darting 🗺️ Habitat...
🔍 Overview Harbinger of spring, the Common Cuckoo is famous for its call and brood parasitism. A declining summer visitor to Sussex heathlands and open woodland. 🪶 Key Identification Features Size: Medium (32–34 cm)Plumage: Grey above, pale barred underpartsDistinctive Marks: Long tail, pointed wingsBill: Slim and slightly down-curvedTail: Long, slightly notchedFlight: Swift and falcon-like 🗺️...
🔍 Overview Once rare, now a regular and expanding presence in Sussex, especially during winter. It is an increasing visitor and bred for the first time in 2020. 🪶 Key Identification Features Winter: White plumage, short yellow bill Breeding: Buff patches on head, chest, and back Other: Smaller and stockier than Little Egret 🗺️ Habitat...
🔍 Overview An increasingly regular large gull in Sussex, especially in winter. Tricky to identify but becoming more familiar to keen observers. 🪶 Key Identification Features Adult: Long-legged, pale grey mantle, small dark eye Other: Long, parallel-sided bill, flat-headed profile Juvenile: Pale underwing, long-winged appearance 🗺️ Habitat & Distribution Best found at landfill sites, gull...
🔍 Overview The Brambling is a winter finch visitor from Scandinavia, adding colour and excitement to Sussex flocks. Most often seen in beech woods or mixed with Chaffinches in farmland. 🪶 Key Identification Features Size: Small (14–16 cm)Plumage: Orange breast, white belly, black or mottled head (depending on season)Distinctive Marks: White rump, orange shouldersBill: Pale...
🔍 Overview A scarce winter visitor to Sussex seas. Less frequently recorded than Red-throated Diver, but regular offshore. 🪶 Key Identification Features Winter: Sleek grey head, dark back, clean white underparts Breeding: Striking black throat, white-striped sides Size: Larger than a gull, slimmer than Great Northern Diver 🗺️ Habitat & Distribution Occasionally recorded off Goring...
📍 Local Expert Tip ” Black Redstarts are passage birds, especially in Autumn can be seen along the tops of the Downs especially where there are farm buildings. A few individuals may winter with Shoreham Fort and around the beach huts and groynes at Widewater being favoured locations.” 🔍 Overview A scarce migrant and winter visitor...
🔍 Overview Striking and elegant, the Avocet is a rare but iconic wader in Sussex, most commonly spotted at coastal wetlands and saltmarshes. With its upturned bill and bold black-and-white plumage, it’s a conservation success story in the UK. 🪶 Key Identification Features Size: Medium (43–45 cm) Plumage: Clean black and white Distinctive Marks: Black...
