Bringing willow tits back from the brink

Sophie Pinder (Reserves Officer – South Yorkshire) reveals more about the rare and elusive willow tit and our work to bring them back from the brink...

A willow tit perched a thing branch — Willow Tit (C) John Bridges

The elusive willow tit

Having seen population crashes of 94% since the 1970s along with a 50% contraction in breeding range, willow tits have become the UK’s fastest declining resident bird.

The few remaining populations are restricted to the post-industrial landscapes of Yorkshire, and other parts of Northern England, Wales and the Midlands. The reason for such a dramatic decline have long been poorly understood, but habitat loss is considered to be a key factor.

The Bank from the Brink initiative

In the Dearne Valley, South Yorkshire, the willow tit was one of the species-focussed projects within the national Back from the Brink initiative. A partnership project delivered by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and RSPB.

The project utilised radio tracking technology to follow the precise movements of 11 willow tits, learning more about their unique habitat, how far they will travel during the winter months and how conservation management can be implemented to safeguard the future of this charismatic species.

Tagged birds could be tracked for up to 12 days and in general, they stayed within a relatively small home range (averaging 2.8 hectares). Some, however, ventured further afield, sometimes travelling over a kilometre between scrub patches, utilising corridors of vegetation along old railway lines and riverbanks to discretely navigate the landscape and avoid predation.

Example willow tit habitat (C) Jim Horsfall

Our findings

Post-industrial features, such as disused railway lines and canals are critical in connecting core habitat areas, enabling willow tits to move more freely around the landscape, establish new breeding territories and foraging for food with little competition from other species.

In the Dearne Valley, trial nest boxes for willow tit were taken over by blue tits, which are more dominant. Willow tits need natural nest sites of standing rotting wood in which they can excavate their nest, often low to the ground in cover of bramble, to avoid predators and competitors.

The Back from the Brink project has enhanced over 100ha of habitat across the Dearne Valley by managing scrub, increasing the amount of standing deadwood and planting new corridors of hedgerows. Annual surveys will allow us to monitor the impact of the habitat work and assess how the local population is changing.

The project has enabled much more to be learned about a very secretive, rare and threatened species. The information has formed the creation of a Willow Tit Conservation Handbook, which can be downloaded for free, to enable land managers to focus more effective habitat management and include species recovery in the long-term strategy for sites and the wider landscape. Download your copy below.