Birds that come and go with the seasons — five summer migrants and five winter visitors, each with its own page.

10 species

Summer Migrants — arrive in spring, leave by autumn

Swallow

House Martin

Swift

Cuckoo

Willow Warbler

Winter Visitors — arrive in autumn, leave by spring

Redwing

Fieldfare

Brambling

Whooper Swan

Golden Plover


A special case: the Blackcap. Once purely a summer visitor to Irish woodland, growing numbers of Blackcaps now spend the winter in Irish gardens too — birds arriving from continental Europe rather than the ones that bred here in summer.


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