They also have a loud song which means they could dominate soundscapes, with researchers warning “its loud and frequent song could significantly alter the soundscape of Britain’s dawn chorus”. Unlike robins and blackbirds, which are territorial, red-billed leiothrixes nest communally so they can breed in high densities, becoming extremely populous in small areas. They appear to like peanuts, sunflower hearts, suet blocks, apple and fat balls, and have been seen taking food from bird tables and hanging feeders. The red-billed leiothrix has similar lifestyle, singing, nesting and feeding habits to robins, blackbirds and blackcaps, meaning it poses the greatest threats to these birds. In some woods in parts of the continent they are the most common woodland bird after about 20 years. Broughton said: “All of a sudden these populations of birds can explode to become very common. Picking up this cluster of records just from social media is alarming.”ĭespite having a loud and beautiful song (they are also known as the Japanese nightingale), red-billed leothrix populations are elusive and usually go unnoticed for years before they are discovered, and then tend to dramatically increase in number, research from Europe suggests. So this is likely to be an underestimate. Broughton said: “There will be many more which we have not heard about, probably because people haven’t reported them, or they haven’t noticed them. Researchers found records by searching social media and Google images. There were 16 records of wild red-billed leiothrixes in southern Britain between 20, with 10 of those coming from the cluster, according to the paper. Fellow invader: parakeets roost in a copse in Wormwood Scrubs Park, London.
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