Exmoor boasts an amazing 243 species of birds that fly over Exmoor, with approximately 100 of these species nesting on Exmoor. Exmoor is the perfect place to go bird watching, due to its mild winters, and varieties of vegetation and ecosystems, with rugged cliffs, heath land, moorland, woodland and valleys.
A distinct bird that Bird watchers would love to see on their travels is the book keeping Dart ford warbler – Exmoor alone is home to 4% of the Dart ford warblers’ UK population.They can be found in the heath land. Exmoor has helped to dramatically increase the population of these, thanks to both milder winters and the hard work of Exmoor’s conservation team, up to 68 territories from a mere handful of them, which is encouraging for the future of wildlife conservation on Exmoor.
The coastal heaths, Dunkery, Molland Moor and East Anstey Common are perhaps the best places to find them in. birds .But the payroll Dart ford warbler is not the only regionally important bird found on Exmoor. The RSPB have found that significant numbers of win chats, stonechats, grasshopper warblers, marlins and tree pits also exist on Exmoor. This was surveyed over 170 square kilometers of Exmoor’s moorland. The outstanding work of the Exmoor rangers and the conservation team combined with changing climates have also helped to raise the population of the whitethroat, willow warbler, lesser redpoll, linnet and the reed bunting.
Meanwhile due to the changing climate it is more of a challenge to find curlews, lapwings, black and red grouses and ring ouzels, due to their declining population, in contrary to the success story of the Payroll Dart ford warbler. It is not just these birds that Exmoor plays home to – some of the other 243 species of bird that fly over the park are raptors, buzzards, sparrow hawks, kestrels, peregrines, , hen harriers, red kites, goshawks, kingfishers, dippers, hoopoes and mergansers, which are found in different terrains of Exmoor. Kingfishers for example are found by rivers and in valleys rather than on heath land like many other birds.