Gaeltacht twite fading from sight

THE plight of the twite troubles ornithologist Derek McLoughlin.

This elusive little finch is not easy to track down, but Derek has been studying it since 2005. With funding from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, he has ringed many twites, found their breeding haunts and documented their lifestyles. His PhD thesis will be the first really comprehensive account of the species in Ireland.

The twite, like the corncrake, basking shark and sunfish, is one of those creatures which wildlife enthusiasts hope to encounter when visiting the western seaboard.

Being easily mistaken for a linnet, this is not a bird with a great public profile. Its brown plumage is streaked like a linnet’s but the twite’s markings are darker and more extensive. The rump, visible when the bird takes flight, is reddish.

The nasal ‘tweet’ call, from which the name comes, is often the first sign that twites are around. In one way twites are helpful to the birdwatcher, as they are not shy and usually allow a close approach.

You stand a better chance of seeing twites in autumn or winter, when they gather into flocks to roam the countryside. Migrants, probably from Scotland, visit Ireland then.

An gleoiseach sléibhe is a bird of the Gaeltacht. It’s found where Irish is spoken and, like the language, the twite faces an uncertain future. As with native speakers, its numbers are declining.

Richard Ussher and Robert Warren, writing in 1900, claimed that twite bred ‘in all counties except those of the central plain’. In the early 90s, there were thought to be around 3,500 pairs distributed along the western and northern coasts. Now, they seem to be confined to Mayo, Donegal and the Dingle peninsula.

Derek counted between 50 and 100 breeding pairs during his study.

The species has a curious history.

It seems that, thousands of years ago, twites lived in Central Asia. Then, ice sheets spread down over the northern hemisphere forcing the birds to move south. Some, however, went west to the Mediterranean. When the ice melted, twites returned to the mountains of eastern Turkey Tibet and China, where they are found today. The ones which moved west were confronted by the great plains of Western Europe, not twite habitat, so they settled along the north-western fringe of the continent.

They breed mainly in the mountains of Scotland and Norway, with some in the Pennines and in Wales. None are found further south.

Twites like it cool wet and windy. As Ussher and Warren put it; “The wilder places are, the more the twite seems to love them, especially when they overlook the sea”. Steep slopes and cliffs, however, don’t appeal to them. Heather-covered bog and areas of bracken are favoured for nesting. According to Derek, they nest within a few kilometres of farms where there are weedy pastures and disturbed ground. Traditional farming practices benefit them.

Over-grazing and changes in the management of the countryside may be causing their decline.

But, although the twite is a prima donna, unable to cope with radical change, it’s a bird which can be surprisingly resilient.

Nordic twites, for example, move south of the Baltic in winter. Just after the War, they found the ruined cities of Germany and Poland to their liking; twite flocks fed on the weeds which grew in the rubble and the birds roosted at night in the bombed-out shells of buildings. Chaos, natural or manmade, seems to appeal to them.

But the twite is no adventurer. Irish ones, unlike their Norwegian cousins, don’t migrate.

Most of them spend their entire lives within 30km of where they were hatched. A bird ringed in Donegal was found on the Mull of Kintyre but this was an exceptional individual. Flocks do, however, turn up on the east coast of Ireland in winter but whether they are composed of natives or visitors isn’t known.

So what is the future for twite in a world of rising temperatures and changing land-use patterns?

Derek has put together an action plan.

Overgrazing, he believes, should be outlawed and heather moors maintained. But he cautions also against under-grazing; twite don’t like too much cover. Keeping traditional meadows intact is important. These should not be re-seeded, their diversity must be maintained.