Dippers (Les Cincles)

      Once in a while, quite often actually, Miriam and I will reminisce about the exciting habitats around the globe we have been privileged to experience, and the birds we have seen. I am quite sure that this tendency has been accentuated by restrictions imposed by COVID and the consequent inability to travel. Armchair reminiscence is a great panacea. 

     There are five species of dipper (Cinclidae) in the world and we have spent time with four of them. They are very entertaining little birds, known as dippers due to their habit of bouncing up and down, or dipping. We are especially fond of dippers, and Miriam suggested I do a small piece on my blog. That seemed like a great idea!

    I will cover them in the order in which we have seen them, using our own images, even though for two of the species we have but a single picture and not of sterling quality. For the fifth species I have used a photograph from the internet.

American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus)

Find a fall or a casade, or a rushing rapid, anywhere upon a clear stream and there you will surely find its complimentary ouzel, flitting about in the spring, dining in the foaming eddies, whirling like a leaf among the foam-bells; ever vigorous and enthusiastic, yet self-contained and neither seeking nor shunning your company.....He is the mountain stream's own darling, the hummingbird of blooming waters, loving rocky ripple slopes and sheets of foam as a bee loves flowers, and a lark loves sunshine and meadows.

John Muir

     Dippers have been successful colonists throughout the world, and there are few areas with suitable habitat where they are not present. Sadly, eastern North America is one of them, and we can only see this species when we visit the western regions of the continent. We often joke, when we pass a rapidly-flowing stream, highly-oxygenated, with suitable rocks, that we should keep an eye out for a dipper. Wishful thinking indeed.

     I first saw American Dipper near Estes Park, CO, USA many years ago, but the location where we have enjoyed the most prolonged and intimate contact has been at Goldstream Park on Vancouver Island, one of my favourite spots in the entire world.

     On our last visit there one very cooperative individual patrolled a section of a stream, and performed just about every behaviour you can imagine, and remained with us for fifteen or twenty minutes.

     The nictitating membrane is used to protect the eye from objects that might cause harm.

     This individual was feeding actively and often emerged from the water with an insect or larvae to eat, gobbled down before we could get a picture.

     I know exactly where we had this fortunate encounter, and Miriam and I have pledged to return to Vancouver Island as soon as normal travel is restored. You know where we will be headed!

White-throated Dipper (Cinclus cinclus)

     I think that a good case could be made that this is the most attractive of the five species of dipper.

     Miriam and I count ourselves fortunate to have seen this bird in four different countries. In order they are England, France, Spain and Slovenia.

     I remember well our first encounter in the Peak District of Derbyshire in England, watching two birds seemingly taking turns plunging into the frigid waters to search for caddis or mayfly nymphs, well protected by a protective "envelope" of air surrounding their feathers. In addition their feathers are heavily oiled so that water runs off. It was rare that they came up without food.

     The bird below was seen during our last visit to the UK, in Co. Durham.

     It's a distant shot but I find it very appealing since it shows classic dipper habitat so well.

     At Crampagna in France, this juvenile appeared to have claimed a territory, and we were able to locate the bird along a predictable stretch of river each time we visited.

     It shared the river with several fly-fishermen in chest waders, standing in the rapids, but seemed to ignore their presence completely.

     We stayed for a week in Bagá in Catalonia, in the heart of the Pyrenees, and there was a dipper under the bridge in town. I could reliably go down to spend a little time with it each morning.

     In Central Slovenia we hunted and hunted, visiting several areas where the habitat seemed perfect, but it took us until late in the afternoon before we finally came across our quarry.

Brown Dipper (Cinclus pallasii)

     Similar in habits to the above two species, this large, uniformly brown species found across Asia, plunges into rapids and cataracts without hesitation, seeking food by walking along the streambed.

     We saw this species only once, high in the Himalayas, near Punakha, Bhutan.

     The bird at the right of the two dippers appears to be a Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) known to breed alongside high mountains streams and rivers.

White-capped Dipper (Cinclus leucocephalus)

     The two species found in South America exhibit wing-flicking behaviour, as well as or instead of the usual bobbing of the body, and rarely cock their tails.

Furthermore, they have a different feeding strategy from the three species covered above, rarely, if ever, diving underwater and preferring to wade belly deep, picking prey from rocks and the surface of the water.

     We saw White-capped Dipper only once, near Papallacta in Ecuador, along a raging torrent of a mountain stream, shared appropriately enough with Torrent Ducks (Merganetta armata). It is perhaps because of competition with Torrent Ducks for sub-surface prey that South American dippers have adopted a surface-feeding strategy.

Rufous-throated Dipper (Cinclus schulzi)

     This is the species of dipper that I have not seen, and it is doubtful (unfortunately) that, at this stage of my life, I ever will. It is found in a restricted area in northern Argentina and southern Bolivia, in remote areas not easy to access. 

     I have enjoyed putting together this little piece on dippers and reliving in my mind some of the grand adventures involved in seeing them. I hope you will equally enjoy reading about them.