Mild weather sees more migratory birds spend winter in Estonia

Quite a few migratory birds that should still be on the Mediterranean coast, only just thinking about flying back north again, have decided to spend the winter in Estonia instead. One such bird, a European robin, was recently banded in Rakvere.
Amateur ornithologist Sven Hõbemägi has been banding birds for some two decades already.
This week, he managed to band a European robin (Erithacus rubecula, or punarind in Estonian) in an oak grove in Rakvere — a bird that should actually still be down on the Mediterranean coast.
"In over 20 years, this is the first time that this early [in the year] — sometime in late January, when we should be deep into winter — a European robin has flown into the net near a bird feeder meant for other birds," Hõbemägi said, adding that he had never had this happen before.
"In fact, there were more of them; only one happened to get caught in the net for banding," he continued. "There were around three or four of them there — a surprising number of them."
"This isn't completely unheard of," noted Kaarel Võhandu, chair of the Estonian Ornithological Society (EOS), or BirdLife Estonia. "During warm winters like this one, some of them may end up staying here. But it's a really interesting and exciting find in any case!"
Warm winters have thrown birds' natural rhythms off further down south as well, and as a result, several species have already begun their journey back north toward Estonia.
Even so, no early spring arrivals were spotted in Estonia during last weekend's Garden Birdwatch event.
"In Southern Europe, they do start moving earlier, but they usually don't reach Estonia until late February," Võhandu said. "It's worth keeping an eye out, though — maybe a few will start arriving in the first half of February already."
New heralds of spring
Since winters have been relatively mild, more and more birds are attempting to forgo their yearly migration south and tough out the winter in Estonia; migration is a very energy-intensive endeavor.
"There are a lot of thrush flocks, for example," Hõbemägi noted. "There are noticeably more common blackbirds here than usual."
He said that some common blackbirds — Turdus merula, or musträstas — do winter in place in Estonia. "But this year, there are considerably more of them," he reiterated.
Usually known as harbingers or heralds of spring, mild winters have seen more and more European starlings — Sturnus vulgaris, or kuldnokk — winter in place as well.
If school textbooks should have to choose a new bird to designate as a harbinger of spring, Hõbemägi would vote for the common chiffchaff — Phylloscopus collybita, or väike-lehelind.
"The common chiffchaff, which is also called a 'cow milker' (lehmalüpsja) for the 'silk-solk' sound it makes, usually returns with the arrival of relatively warm weather," the amateur ornithologist explained.
"Personally, for me, it's the Eurasian skylark," Võhandu added, referring to the Alauda arvensis, or põldlõoke. "They often fly overhead and vocalize, and that marks the beginning of the spring migration for me."
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Editor: Merili Nael, Aili Vahtla