page_title: White-throated dipper
section_title: Behaviour and ecology
hierarchical_section_title: White-throated dipper / Behaviour and ecology
caption_attribution_description: Cinclus cinclus English: A White-throated Dipper in Brandon Creek, County Kerry, Ireland.
context_page_description: The white-throated dipper, also known as the European dipper or just dipper, is an aquatic passerine bird found in Europe, Middle East, Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent. The species is divided into several subspecies, based primarily on colour differences, particularly of the pectoral band. The white-throated dipper is Norway's national bird.
context_section_description: The white-throated dipper is closely associated with swiftly running rivers and streams or the lakes into which these fall. It often perches bobbing spasmodically with its short tail uplifted on the rocks round which the water swirls and tumbles.
  It acquired its name from these sudden dips, not from its diving habit, though it dives as well as walks into the water.
  It flies rapidly and straight, its short wings whirring swiftly and without pauses or glides, calling a shrill zil, zil, zil.  It will then either drop on the water and dive or plunge in with a small splash.
  From a perch it will walk into the water and deliberately submerge, but there is no truth in the assertion that it can defy the laws of specific gravity and walk along the bottom. Undoubtedly when entering the water it grips with its strong feet, but the method of progression beneath the surface is by swimming, using the wings effectively for flying under water. It holds itself down by muscular exertion, with its head well down and its body oblique, its course beneath the surface often revealed by a line of rising bubbles.
  In this way it secures its food, usually aquatic invertebrates including caddis worms and other aquatic insect larvae, beetles, Limnaea, Ancylus and other freshwater molluscs, and also fish and small amphibians. A favourite food is the small crustacean Gammarus, an amphipod shrimp.  It also walks and runs on the banks and rocks seeking terrestrial invertebrates.
  The winter habits of the dipper vary considerably and apparently individually. When the swift hill streams are frozen it is forced to descend to the lowlands and even visit the coasts, but some will remain if there is any open water.
caption: At Brandon Creek, County Kerry, Ireland
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