Bird whose song is like violin’s

Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita)

The chiffchaff is a small woodland bird that can be heard calling on sunny wintry days. Its song is a repetitive chiff-chaff hence its English, German (zilpzalp), Dutch (tjiftjaf) and Welsh (siff-saff) name.

The bird breeds in northern and temperate Europe and migrates to southern Europe, North Africa and southern Asia in winter. It is estimated that between 60 and 120 million such birds live in Europe.In Malta, it is known as vjolin tax-xitwa, probably due to its call as well.

The chiffchaff visits Malta during migration and many stop here for winter. Although it is present here from autumn, it is only when the temperature starts falling in late December and early January that it increases in number.

It is usually seen in wooded areas, in valleys and in large gardens. Most of the time the bird can be seen flying from one branch to the other picking up insects, as its food consists mainly of small flies.

The chiffchaff is one of several small green warblers known as leaf warblers. Several species visit our islands. The most common are the wood warbler, known in Maltese as vjolin ħadrani, and the willow warbler, known locally as vjolin pastard. These species can be difficult to tell apart without hearing their song. It was only in 1789 that an English naturalist showed how to identify these three birds through their song.

Two other species of leaf warblers that visit the islands are the western and eastern Bonelli’s warblers, known in Maltese as vjolin bajdani and vjolin tal-Lvant respectively.

This article was published in The Times on 09.01.13

The very wary starling

The starling is one of the best-known birds in Europe and is a common wintering bird in Malta.

In most of Europe, starlings are tame and confiding. In Malta they are not protected and are shot in large numbers. The ones that survive are thus often very wary and keep away from humans.The first birds start to arrive in September but the majority visit us from October to early spring.

A couple of decades ago, a pair of starlings bred for the first time in the Maltese islands.

The bird continued to breed here irregularly but it is still a rare breeder, with only one or two pairs managing to breed every year.

The starling, sturnell in Maltese, is difficult to confuse with other birds. It is the size of a thrush – about half the size of a pigeon – with dark, glossy feathers. After moulting, in late summer, it gets a spotted appearance.

The spots appear because the new feathers have white tips. But with time, the tips wear off and by summer, or earlier, most of the white spots would have disappeared.

Starlings are mainly insectivorous and can play an important role in pest control. They also eat seeds and fruit.

These birds are also found in North Africa, the Middle East and all the way to India, Nepal and China.

They have also been introduced in many other parts of the world, including North America, Australia and New Zealand from where it migrated to surrounding regions.

Although the starling is still common, in some areas it has decreased by up to 80 per cent.

Tens of thousands are shot in Malta every year and if it were not for this ‘sport’, starlings would be much tamer and approachable and they would probably breed in larger numbers.

This article was published in The Times on 12.12.12

The duck that changes coat

The mallard, known in Malta as kuluvert, is a wild duck found in the Americas, Europe, Asia and North Africa. It has also been introduced in Australia and New Zealand.

Mallards visit the Maltese Islands in autumn and winter. One or two can regularly be seen at the Għadira Nature Reserve where they sometimes join a colony of feral mallards that resides there.

The male mallard has two different plumages. In the breeding season it has a conspicuous shiny green head, brown chest and grey body, but during the rest of the year it sports speckled brown feathers similar to those of females.

Most ducks have the same moulting pattern and outside the breeding pattern superficially look very similar. Often what distinguishes one species of duck from another is a patch of coloured feathers on the wing, known as a speculum.

The male mallard’s vivid colours help it to attract females during courtship, but bright colours are also conspicuous to predators so, as soon as the eggs hatch, the male moults into the less conspicuous non-breeding plumage.

Moulting is an important yet dangerous process. In the initial phase, the duck’s feathers start to fall off and new ones grow in their place.

New feathers are full of blood and grow very fast, but they are heavy. When a feather is fully grown, the blood supply is closed off and the feathers become hollow and light.

During the post-breeding moult, which takes place in late summer, the feathers are lost and replaced in a short period of time. This results in many feathers being lost at the same time and the ducks becoming flightless for up to two weeks, which makes them very vulnerable to various predators.

This article was published in The Times on 05.12.12.

Swift, skilful … and noisy

One does not have to be a birdwatcher or a nature lover to notice the swifts which in some parts of Malta have become a part of the urban environment from late spring to mid-summer.

They are noisy birds especially when they are chasing each other through the streets and between buildings.

They can be seen in areas such as Paceville, St Julians, Sliema, Gzira, San Gwann, Mosta, Mdina, Mellieħa and in Gozo. 

Swifts started breeding in the Maltese islands about six years ago. The eggs are laid in a rudimentary nest in a ventilator of crevice in buildings, usually in competition with Spanish sparrows. 

Since the first colony was established, the number of breeding sites has increased rapidly. 

Some time ago it was realised that we actually have two species of swift breeding in the Maltese islands; the common and the pallid swift. These two species are very similar and difficult to tell apart.  

Common and pallid swifts, known in Maltese as rundun and rundun kannelli, respectively, are common spring and autumn migrants. 

Another species, the alpine swift, rundun żaqqu bajda in Maltese, is larger than the other species and easily identified by its white belly. 

All swifts are trans-Saharan migrants. Pallid swift tend to arrive at the breeding sites earlier and leave later than the common swift.

Swifts are fast skillful flyers. They spend most of their lives flying they can sleep and air on the wing and touch land only when they are breeding.

Until relatively recently migrating swifts were used as targets and illegally shot in large numbers by Maltese hunters. The shooting of swifts has now started to decrease as a result of better law enforcement and this has made it possible for these birds to start breeding in the Maltese islands. 

In the past five years or so we have had other breeding successes. 

Swallows and house martins which also used to be shot in large numbers are managing to breed successfully every year although not yet in large numbers.

This article was published in The Times on 27.06.2012

The yellow-legged wader

The wood sandpiper is a wading bird seen in the Maltese islands during migration. It is one of the smaller waders with a short fine bill and yellowish legs. 

Several species of waders visit the Maltese islands. To the uninitiated they might all look the same but with a little practice and experience identifying these birds becomes second nature.

The best place to see migrating wood sandpipers and other waders in Malta is at the Għadira Nature Reserve near Mellieħa which is open t the public on weekends but to see them breeding you would have to travel north at least as far as Scandinavia. 

The nests are built on the ground in open swampy areas in northern forests, but as the summer season so far north is very short you would have to be there between May and mid-July. 

The start and finishing dates of the breeding season depends on how far north they are. In northern Russia for example breeding does not start before June.

Some adult green sandpipers start migrating south as early as late June. 

Young birds remain behind for longer and usually leave in late August. 

This gives them time to become fully grown and to build up their fat reserves which will provide them with the energy required to fly south. 

European and many Asian wood sandpipers spend the winter in Africa. 

On their way south they stop to feed and replenish their fat in suitable places. 

Wetlands north of the Mediterranean are of great importance for these birds as the reserves they build make it possible for them to cross the Sahara desert without the need to refuel.

When stopping to feed, migrating sandpipers keep themselves busy walking continuously along the water’s edge or in shallow waters, picking up tiny aquatic insects from the mud or from the water’s surface.

Wood sandpipers have a very large breeding range and they are not considered as being endangered although climate change is seen as a threat as this could result in their specialised habitat shrinking in area.

 As the earth warms up these birds might have to travel further north to find suitable breeding sites. 

This article was published in The Times on 18.04.2012

The Cory's shearwater

The Cory's Shearwater is a large seabird that breeds mainly on islands and cliffs in the Mediterranean. 

In the Maltese Islands it breeds along most of the cliffs of Malta, Gozo and Comino as well as on the islet of Filfla. The nest which is not more than a shallow depression in the ground is usually found in deep crevices or underneath boulders safe from predators especially gulls.

In Maltese the Cory’s shearwater is known as ċiefa. About 7,000 breeding pairs are found in the Maltese islands. The largest colony is found at Ta’ Ċenċ on Gozo where it is estimated there are about 1,000 pairs breed but if you visit this site of any of the other colonies during the day you will not see any shearwaters flying around. 

Shearwaters which are not incubating spend the day feeding far out at sea. They return to take over brooding duties or to feed the young at night when the colonies become alive with loud calls like that of crying babies.

Cory’s shearwaters are at their colonies from late February to October.

 They lay a single egg at the end of May. The hatchling is fed on regurgitated food and the young bird grows and becomes fat very quickly. In August and September, while still covered in downy feathers, it weighs twice as much as its parents. In September it starts to grow true feathers. 

By this time it is visited by its parents less and less often and is abandoned completely for several weeks at the end of the breeding season. 

During this time it relies on the fat that was accumulated in its body while it was growing. 

In October the young birds have grown their full compliment of adult feathers and as their fat reserves are used up they start getting restless often visiting the opening of the crevice in which they were hatched until one night they open their wings and jump off to take their first flight. 

The colonies are deserted by the third week of October.

One hundred and fifty years ago Cory’s shearwater were shot to be roasted and mashed into a paste which was used as fishing bait. They were also available for sale at the Valletta market. Some hunters used to go out in boats to shoot them for fun. This practice increased in the 1980s when hunting from boats started to become popular even though by this time it had become illegal to shoot at these birds. Today the biggest threat is from human disturbance. 

These birds are very sensitive to light and abandon their colonies if there is too much light in the vicinity. To protect these birds it is important to ensure that no development that could be detrimental to this species is allowed along the cliff faces where they breed. Colonies are also destroyed by quarrying and no development along the cliffs where they breed.

This article appeared in The Times 21.07.2010