Freshwater birds

Scotland's fresh water environments are diverse, extensive, and typically have a high water quality. It's therefore no surprise that they support a wide range of bird species. Small burns provide nesting habitat for grey wagtail, dipper, goosander and common sandpiper, while the shores of nutrient-poor upland lochs are breeding sites for red-throated diver, black-throated diver and greylag goose. Lowland support nesting mallard, gadwall and shoveler and, in Orkney, pintail. Larger lochs support important numbers of wintering ducks and geese.

Many previously extensive wetlands have been much reduced or lost altogether due to drainage and agricultural improvement. With appropriate management, however, sites can be recovered. For instance, through careful control of grazing and water levels, wetlands at the RSPB reserve of Loch Gruinart  on Islay have been developed into superb habitats for nesting and wintering ducks and waders.

Red-throated diver

The haunting calls of 'rain geese', together with their amazing water courtship displays, are part of what makes the remote moorlands of West and North Scotland very special. These primitive looking birds use the shores of hill lochans for nesting. Vulnerable to disturbance, changes in water level, and predation by non-native species like mink, red-throated divers have been helped by positive conservation action, including the provision of artificial floating islands for them to nest on!

Osprey

The sight of an osprey plunging feet-first into a loch to catch a fish is one of the most memorable and exciting of Scottish wildlife experiences. It seems strange that this beautiful bird, now so popular, should have been persecuted to extinction in Britain by the early years of the 20th century. Re-colonisation occurred in 1954 at the site where you can still view them today - Loch Garten, in Speyside  . Since then, Ospreys have spread slowly but steadily in Scotland, where more than 140 pairs now nest.

Dipper

This is one of the most characteristic, and characterful, birds of our clean burns and fast-flowing rivers. Immediately recognisable by their constant bobbing motion, dippers 'fly' underwater to reach the stream bed, where they feed on freshwater invertebrates