Firecrest (Regulus ignicapilla)

An exciting moment for me when this single image came up on my PC screen and I could tell for sure I'd snapped my first Firecrest after years of searching.

Still an uncommon species in the UK with estimates of resident pairs ranging between 600 and 2,000 pairs in the south eastern corner of England, supplemented with variable numbers of winter migrants, predominently along the east and south/south western coastline.

Like the very similar-looking Goldcrest, this is a passerine bird in the 'Kinglet' family. Between them they vie for the title of smallest bird in Europe, the Firecrest measuring a mere 9 cm long and weighing just 5 grams. The Goldcrest just about wins that title.

This isn't a bird you're likely to notice unless you're actively looking for it and even then it's very difficult. Being so small, it loses heat easily and is almost constantly moving among trees in evergreen woodland and in low vegetation looking for small arthropods with soft cuticles, such as springtails, aphids, spiders and other small insects to feed upon. Sometimes it imbeds itself in flocks of Blue Tits, making it even more difficult to spot.

And even when you think you may have spotted one, given it's likely to be a blur, telling it apart from a Goldcrest is tough in real time.

An exception to this if you're lucky is, during the mating season, the male can sometimes be spotted calling from a tree branch displaying his colourful crest.

An interesting fact: the latin scientific name 'Regulus ignicapilla' roughly translates as 'The fire-capped little king'.