page_title: North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest
section_title: Birds
hierarchical_section_title: North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest / Fauna and flora / Birds
caption_attribution_description: Panurus biarmicus (male), Chomoutov, Czech Republic
context_page_description: The North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest is an area of European importance for wildlife in Norfolk, England. It comprises 7,700 ha of the county's north coast from just west of Holme-next-the-Sea to Kelling, and is additionally protected through Natura 2000, Special Protection Area listings; it is also part of the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The North Norfolk Coast is also designated as a wetland of international importance on the Ramsar list and most of it is a Biosphere Reserve.
  Habitats within the SSSI include reed beds, salt marshes, freshwater lagoons and sand or shingle beaches. The wetlands are important for wildlife, including some scarce breeding birds such as pied avocets, western marsh harriers, Eurasian bitterns and bearded reedlings. The location also attracts migrating birds including vagrant rarities. Ducks and geese winter along this coast in considerable numbers, and several nature reserves provide suitable conditions for water voles, natterjack toads and several scarce plants and invertebrates.
  The area is archaeologically significant, with artefacts dating back to the Upper Paleolithic.
context_section_description: The SSSI is designated as a Special Protection Area for birds for its variety of coastal habitats. The large breeding colonies of Sandwich terns and little terns, especially those at Blakeney Point and Scolt Head Island, are of "European importance" as defined in the Birds Directive, and the coast as a whole meets Natural England's criteria for nationally important populations of common terns, pied avocets and reedbed specialists like western marsh harriers, Eurasian bitterns and bearded reedlings. Other birds nesting in the wetlands include the northern lapwing, common redshank, and sedge, reed and Cetti's warblers. Ringed plovers and Eurasian oystercatchers lay their eggs on bare sand in the dunes. Little egrets, Eurasian spoonbills, ruffs and black-tailed godwits are present for much of the year, and the egret and spoonbill have both started nesting within the SSSI.
  In spring and early summer, migrant birds including the little gull, black tern, Temminck's stint and garganey may pass through on their way to breed elsewhere. In the autumn, birds arrive from the north; some, such as whimbrels, curlew sandpipers and little stints, just pausing for a few days to refuel before continuing south, others staying for the winter. Offshore, great and Arctic skuas, northern gannets and black-legged kittiwakes may pass close by in favourable winds. Large numbers of ducks winter along the coast, including many Eurasian wigeons, Eurasian teals, mallards and gadwalls, goldeneyes and northern pintails. Red-throated divers are usually on the sea, and brent geese feed on sea lettuce and other green algae. Barn owls and sometimes hen harriers quarter the marshes in winter, and snow bunting flocks can be found on the beaches. Thousands of geese, mainly pink-footed, roost at Holkham.
  The SSSI's north-facing east coast location can be favourable for huge numbers of migrating birds when the weather conditions are right. These may include vagrant rarities. A black-winged stilt, which acquired the nickname "Sammy", arrived at Titchwell in 1993 and became a permanent resident up to its disappearance in 2005. Other major rarities included a western sandpiper at Cley in 2012, a rufous-tailed robin at Warham Greens in 2011, and a black-winged pratincole at Titchwell in 2009.
caption: Bearded reedling
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