Birdwatching Holidays In West Wales
Whimbrel
Likes rocky shores. Much smaller than curlew and darker with pale stripe edged by dark stripe each side on crown of head. Bill: downcurved with bend. Dumpier than curlew in flight and faster. Call is rapid rippling titter.
Whinchat
Rough grassland or coast with gorse, bracken and heather. Perches on bushes or hops on ground. Spring male: speckled crown, dark cheeks edged with white stripes. Breast is pale orange fading to buff. In flight: tail dark tip; white patch each side. Song like robin but has some harsh sounds thrown in.
Whitethroat
Sylvia genus same as Blackcap. Likes rough habitat: heaths, hedges or wood-edges. Won’t come to manicured parks and gardens. Very slim bird with narrow longish tail. Male: brown with grey head, white throat and pale underside with tinge of pink. Legs are pinkish. Voice is low chatter; not warble.
Whooper Swan
Only a winter visitor, it is larger than the Bewick, its bill is yellow with a black tip, the yellow showing all around the base (unlike Bewick where the black extends all the way up at front). It’s white all over with black legs. Feeds in fields, on estuaries and lakes. Also on fringes of hills. Bewicks like lowlands.
Wigeon
Medium sized with sharp tail. Often in large flocks on floods and marshes. High pitched whistling call. Male: chestnut head, yellow forehead; black and white at end of tail. Bill: small grey with black tip. Grey on back and has big white patch on centre wing when in flight. Female brown rust or grey brown.
Willow Tit
Less easy to spot than Marsh Tit. Chunkier head with thick neck and dull cap. Favours damp woods: alder and willow so less likely to be close to casual spotters. Song quite musical: si-si tchay-tchay-tchay.
Willow Warbler
Arrive April. Brighter and more yellowish than chiff chaff. Legs pale pinky. Longer primary feathers so longer wings. Long distance migrants. Trilly warble with descending tone at end.
Wood Warbler
Very similar to Chiffchaff but with warbling song. Rather yellow in tone with long wingtips. Likes high trees with spaces between: beech and oak. Hard to see when trees in leaf. Never seen around coasts or gardens.