Species Guide | White-Thoated Dipper (Cinclus cinclus)
APPEARANCE
Adult White-Throated Dippers (scientific name Cinclus cinclus) are predominantly dark brown with a white throat and chest. Juvenile Dippers have a more mottled, grey appearance. Dippers can often be seen standing on stones in fast-flowing rivers and streams and then diving into the water to search for food. They tend to have favorite stones and fly low over the water’s surface between them.
Did You Know? Right up until the beginning of the 20th Century Scotland paid people to kill Dippers because of a misguided perception that they were detrimental to fish stocks!
Diet
Dippers are semi-aquatic birds, enabling them to forage underwater for small invertebrates. They are so adept at swimming they seem unaffected even when the water is fast-moving.
HABITAT
Dippers are exclusively found in fast-flowing watercourses with stony/rocky bottoms, whether it be during the breeding season or in winter. They are widespread throughout non-coastal areas in Scotland, and Wales, as well as the North and South-West of England. Dippers are notably absent from low-lying areas due to lack of suitable habitat.
Note that this map is for a rough illustration of animal distribution across the UK1, whereby light green indicates established populations.
Behavior
The Dipper call is quite loud and high-pitched and can be heard over the noise of even fast-flowing water. They also communicate using movements including bobbing up and down as well as blinking which exposes white-colored feathers on their eyelids.
Dipper Call:
Teet Sirotkin, xeno-canto.org
Breeding pairs of Dippers will defend their territory along a stretch of water. Their nests are usually large, domed structures constructed from moss with a single entrance hole. The nest site tends to be close to water and generally sits on some form of ledge or crevice.
Nesting occurs between March and May, with up to two broods per year. The typical clutch size is 4 to 5 eggs, with incubation lasting for around 16 to 17 days, and is carried out by the female. The fledging period occurs after approximately 21 to 22 days. The young Dippers are altricial, meaning they are born naked and helpless, but develop downy feathers shortly after hatching.
STATS
The wing length of adult Dippers is within the range of 86 and 100 millimeters, with a body weight between 54 and 74 grams. The average lifespan of a White-Throated Dipper is 8 to 9 years.
| Wing Length2 | 86-100 mm |
| Body Weight3 | 54-74 grams |
| Longevity2 | 8-9 Years |
NATURAL PREDATORS
As a ground-nesting bird, Mustelids such as Stoats and Mink are a major predator of the White-Throated Dipper in the U.K.
Conservation Status
Over the past few decades, the number of Dippers in the U.K. has fluctuated, but there has been an overall decline, leading to their inclusion on the UK Amber List. They are though classified as least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) from a global perspective.
U.K.
Conservation Status
Global
Conservation Status
References
- Population data based on BTO assessment
- Featherbase
- RSPB
