Vocally dominant Asian songbird ‘could change sound of Britain’s dawn chorus’

Invasive bird’s loud and frequent song ‘could significantly alter the soundscape of Britain,’ researchers say

An adult red-billed leiothrix at a garden bird-feeder in Horningsham, Wiltshire (Phil Mumby)

A yellow and red songbird native to the Himalayas could colonise parts of Britain and change the sound of the country’s dawn chorus, a new study has found.

The red-billed leiothrix is native to southeast Asia, spanning from the Himalayas across northern India and Nepal, much of China and into Myanmar and Vietnam, where it occupies humid forests and dense thickets and shrublands, the researchers said.

A popular caged bird, it has spread to different parts of the world, including Europe, after being released or escaping captivity and then populating in new habitats, according to the study published on Monday in Ibis, the international journal of avian science.