Hidden in dense reedbeds, the bittern has a reputation for being one of Britain’s most secretive birds. Part of the heron and stork family, the bittern is an expert at camouflage. Until it blinks, you might be looking straight at one and not know it’s there.
I live on ponds, lakes and slow-moving rivers – even in flooded quarry pits. My long legs and toes enable me to dive for my favourite food, submerged plants, but I will also eat insects, fruit, seeds, leaves and bird eggs.
The magnificent cormorant is a year-round resident of the Solent. With its gothic black silhouette, it has a primitive, almost reptile-like appearance with its wings described as ‘like a broken umbrella hung out to dry’.
The highlight of this birds’ courtship display is the ‘weed dance’. Both birds dive down to collect weed in their bills and then rise up out of the water, face to face.
Its size, long legs, and smart grey, black and white feathering makes this bird an unmistakeable sight around the estuaries and coastline of the Solent.
You’ll find kingfisher around the Solent all year-round: generally in still or slow-moving water habitats such as lakes, canals, and rivers, where they hunt for fish and aquatic insects from perches.
Their bright turquoise head and back and orangey-copper breast are a dazzle of colour and make this bird easy to identify.
Little egrets are one of the easiest birds to identify on the Solent coast without binoculars due to its dazzling white plumage.⠀
During the breeding season it has a bright chestnut throat and cheeks and pale patch next to it’s bill. It can be noisy quite noisy, with a distinctive whinnying call.
I am a dark-coloured bird with brown and bluey-black feathers, a small red and yellow beak and long, yellow legs. I love to eat lots of different things, including water plants, seeds, grasses, fruit, insects, snails, worms, and small fish.
I live in fresh and salty water, including sometimes in the sea! I feed mainly on submerged vegatation. My orange bill distinguishes me from the other two swans found in the UK, the Bewick’s swan and the whooper swan.
To distinguish me from a cormorant, pay particular attention to my head, I have a slimmer bill and my head shape is different with a characteristic steep forehead and peak to the crown above my eyes.
I am a rare bird with red eyes and black and white plumage in the Winter. During the breeding season I look even more striking as my white feathers turn red and I grow bright orange ear tufts.
