White-throated Dipper

While we were in the Pyrenées in September we had the privilege of watching a White-throated Dipper Cinclus cinclus hunting for food in a shallow fast flowing stream. We have seen a dipper before, in Yorkshire, but they are not a species we see a lot.  They are fast moving and wary, so not easy to photograph.

Dippers are small birds that hunt in streams for invertebrates. Their name comes because of their habit of bobbing and 'dipping'. They hunt by diving into the stream from rocks in the middle of the stream then walking along the bottom poking around under rocks for shrimps and caddis larvae.

They are an upland species, sometimes descending to the lowlands in winter if the rivers are frozen.

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