White-throated dipper

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White-throated dipper
Cinclus cinclus -Kirkcudbright, Scotland-8.jpg
In Scotland
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Cinclidae
Genus: Cinclus
Species: C. cinclus
Binomial name
Cinclus cinclus
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Cinclus cinclus01 distr-2.png

     Resident      Winter[2]

The white-throated dipper (Cinclus cinclus), 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.[3]

Taxonomy and systematics[edit]



The Cyprus population became extinct in the early 1950s. It has been described as a distinct subspecies, the Cyprus dipper (C. c. olympicus), but its validity is doubtful.



The young are greyish brown and have no chestnut band.

Behaviour and ecology[edit]

At Brandon Creek, County Kerry, Ireland





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.



Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany
White-throated Dipper young one begging for food, at Sumdo, Ladakh, India

The nest is by the water. It is large, globular or oval, like a large wren's nest, built into a crack or hollow in the rock, in the masonry, or on the supports of a bridge, or, more rarely, in an overhanging branch. It is composed of moss, dead grass and leaves. This ball, however, is just a shelter. Usually hidden beneath a lip, is the entrance to the real nest within, a cup of grass or sedge, nearly as large as the nest of a blackbird, lined with leaves of oak, beech or other trees. Three to six white eggs are laid starting between March and May. One or two broods are reared, usually in the same nest.



The male has a sweet wren-like song. During courtship the male sings whilst he runs and postures, exhibiting his snowy breast, and when displaying he will take long and high flights, like those of the common kingfisher, accompanied by sharp metallic calls clink, clink, different from the normal zil.


  1. ^ BirdLife International (2012). "Cinclus cinclus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013. 
  2. ^ Brewer, David (2001). Wrens, Dippers and Thrashers. Pica Press. ISBN 978-1-873403-95-2. 
  3. ^ "Norges nasjonalfugl fossekallen" (in Norwegian). Norsk Rikskringkasting AS. Retrieved 19 January 2011. 

External links[edit]