Spring woodland birds in Central Europe

Spring time in the coniferous and mixed woodlands of Central Europe is full of life and its possible to see plenty of species which are locally extinct in much of the UK or have very restricted populations but are widespread breeders and fairly common in almost any suitable forest in Czechia. A week during the end of May last year provided me with some great photographic opportunities during my early morning walks to the woodlands just outside of town, which I’m fairly familiar with when visiting each year. This post will feature a few species I targeted in the local woodlands, specifically Wood Warblers and Pied Flycatchers and I will add another post with farmland and open countryside birds soon.

One of my favourite summer visitors is the Wood Warbler, so naturally they turned out to be a major focus since they’re abundant in the region and I don’t get to see them as often back home. They can be elusive but the males were often in full song throughout the day, giving off a few bursts of their accelerating trilling song each minute, one of my favourite sounds in nature! I figured out that there would be a singing male every kilometre or so within a woodland, so their territories were spread out, but taking a single path and following it through would surely end up with one as long as there are oaks and beech trees mixed in with what is mostly coniferous trees.

One pair I found had already started feeding young within the nest. I setup nearby but further enough to make sure there was no disturbance on their routine and to observe their nesting behaviour at a distance where I was just a part of the surroundings for them. They were mostly silent but I noticed the male would give a burst of song as it returned to the area, drop down to lower branches and then make an unusual flutter down to the ground disappearing in the leaves and undergrowth.

Pied Flycatchers were more abundant and many were making use of the nest boxes put up on trees throughout one of the woodland. I did however find a pair nesting in a natural nest cavity within a tree. It was a surprise to find them as it was in a small woodland that seemed quiet with just a single Wood Warbler, Redstart and Spotted Flycatcher on territory and then eventually I heard the Pied Fly’s melody from just above my head as one landed on an overhanging branch. I think the female was still incubating eggs as the female would disappear into the nest for long periods whilst the male occasionally brought in insects and they would sometimes swap roles.

Pied Flycatchers are skittish when they’re away from the nest, as they are during migration season when its just too difficult to even get prolonged views of them well within forest as they disappear high up quickly or just continue following the mixed flock they’re tagging along with. But during they would make brief pauses on branches at mid height as they searched for prey.

Sometimes they would keep using one spot, similar to Spotted Flycatchers using a favourite branch to ‘flycatch’ from, but for the most part they were generally on the move and a mix of being at mid to low height.

I liked working with the Wood Warblers during the early morning just after sunrise when the forest had a cool and calm atmosphere and their trilling song echoed far. A lot of the local forests here are majority pine trees but even just a single mature broadleaf beech or oak could hold a male on territory. The messy and bare twigs in a dimmed and dark pine forest provides a different environment, definitely harder to get the right shots in, but this individual would give a burst of song from one branch and then move onto the next, repeating it until eventually landing in a good spot.

Pied Flycatchers were frequent in a woodland where there were a number of nest boxes purposely put up for them, definitely helping the local population as this was a fairly young woodland, so limited natural nesting cavities, which would normally be taken up by local resident birds. The boxes were often just off the main trail and some of them had some nice branches next to it so the flycatchers would you utilise them as a landing spot as they flew in and observed the area before returning ti the nest. Interestingly when the flycatchers left to the box they wouldn’t stay in the vicinity to search for insects but would fly straight out much further away and often in the same direction each time and returning the same way, so they must have particular favoured feeding areas or where they don’t compete with others.

Amongst the usual species, Black Woodpeckers were frequent and their calls would be the first alert to their presence nearby before appearing in the canopy, unfortunately I never managed a found a nest site unlike the plenty of Great-spotted Woodpecker nets with loud chicks inside, one of those nests being just waist height off the ground! Dippers were along a nearby stream too and showed near a waterfall where the nest was hidden.