A small brown bird which few people care about
Welcome to Twite Week at The Hall of Einar.
Twite are small brown birds. To the uninitiated they might look as if they are sparrows. They are brown and House Sparrow sized. Here’s one at Knott End-on-Sea, taken this weekend with my friend Martin.
Why should we all care about Twite?
Twite are birds of open countryside, nesting on moorland, and feeding on seeds all year round. And it’s that seed-eating habit which has been part of their undoing. It’s a fatal evolutionary adaptation which is leading to their extirpation in England. Once a common bird of farmland, there were just 12 nests in England in 2021. Why? Because there’s no seed for them to eat, due to industrialised farming.
Why else are they in trouble? They breed in areas of tall heather, and destruction of heather by burning to raise Red Grouse, to be killed for entertainment, means they have nowhere to live.
Any other problems? They’re at the southern end of their range and climate change is meaning populations of many mobile species are moving north in the Northern Hemisphere as climate chaos heats the Earth. We’ve starved them and burnt their homes until there are just 12 nests left. All that’s left is an isolated population in the ‘Twite Triangle’ between Manchester, Leeds and Halifax, which needs fresh blood from other Twite to be able to sustain itself.
How can we live with ourselves?
Read more about Twite
Twite There's a Pennine Finch on barbed wire. That's a cue for me to lift my lens up: Lovely, aren't they? read more
A flock of Twite and an inside leg measurement I'm walking one of the sections of coastal path on Westray. At least a path is what I call it.… read more
A Heather Lintie at the Castle o’ Burrian Twite are such beautiful birds. Their subtlety is exceptional, with the softness of their stripes and the paleness of their… read more
Two little Twite, sitting on a wall I've spent this week honouring Twite, a wonderful, curious, much-overlooked bird. Twite live in weedy fields and moorland, or at… read more
The death of the Yellow-Billed Linen-Weaver The scientific name of the Twite is Linaria flavirostris. Linaria means linen-weaver and flavirostris means yellow-billed. Twite are Yellow-Billed Linen-Weavers.… read more
Step on Watching Twite is a delight. Every time one jumps, the others bob up and down, too. We've been photographing a… read more
Can you imagine the Pennines without the Pennine Finch? Twite are on the verge of extirpation in England. Their last stand is in the 'Twite Triangle' between Manchester, Leeds… read more
Twite are seriously underrated Twite are such beautiful birds. They're small brown finches, closely related to Linnets. The subtlety of their plumage is just… read more
Twite on a wire There's a Twite on a wire. We're down to our last 10,000 breeding pairs. There's always a small, hardy flock… read more