Firecrest photographed at Silbe [SIL] on 11/2/2012 Photo: © Rod Ferbrache (visit site)

The Firecrest’s breeding range covers much of southern and central Europe up to Fennoscandia in the north and Russia in the east. Their range has expanded northward with breeding recorded in The Netherlands in 1928 and Denmark in 1961. The southern population is thought to be sedentary while northern and eastern populations are migratory, presumably accounting for the peak in October seen in the Channel Islands. The first confirmed breeding record in the UK occurred in 1962, in the New Forest and it is now a rare breeding species in southern and central England. Small numbers winter in southwest England, concentrating in an area from Hampshire through to Somerset.

Although first recorded in Guernsey circa 1872, Firecrests were probably under recorded before regular monthly records were kept by La Société. Smith wrote about a letter from Mr Couch in which he describes how he had two specimens brought to him by a young lady whose brother had knocked them down. The Star records '... the Fire-crested Wren, very similar in appearance to the Golden-crested Wren, is not very uncommon in our Island'. Smith obviously had other ideas as he disagreed and thought of it as a 'rare occasional straggler'. He then describes in great depth how to separate the two species. Since Smith, there was very little published information and Dobson recorded little information but remarked that they were probably as common as in Jersey where he found them extremely common in some winters.

Since regular collation of monthly records, Firecrests are now known to be much more common in the Bailiwick than in the United Kingdom. Philip Guille caught 1,558 birds between 1971 and 1986, averaging just under 100 birds per year (Veron 1988). In more recent times ringing totals in Guernsey have been in the order of 30-50 birds a year and the totals have outnumbered Goldcrests in some years. Firecrest numbers are prone to being very variable between years. The peak passage takes place in autumn, starting in mid-September before the main passage throughout October and into November. Variable numbers of birds remain to winter and by December small numbers of birds tend to widespread across the islands until they depart for their breeding grounds in March.

In autumn and winter, Firecrests can be found all across the islands and frequent gardens, areas of scrub, woodland and almost any area that has a few bushes.

The breeding status is unclear as birds may well be overlooked. A female with a large bare brood patch was caught at La Fougeraie, Sark on 29/5/77 and in 1979, it was suspected that Firecrests bred in Guernsey. Between 1993 and 1998, there were regular summer records of this species from the Fauxquets Valley area and in 1993 a nest was destroyed by Magpies in May but juveniles were seen later on in the year between 1st and 4th July 1993 and so breeding was proved. Birds were seen throughout April 2004 again at Fauxquets Valley but it was not until1995 that breeding was proven again with an adult and two juveniles being seen between 4th to 8th July. In 1996, 2-3 birds were seen through out May, in 1997 2 males were present between 12-31 May and were observed in song on 8th June, in 1998 a male was heard singing between 3rd – 24th May and a bird again seen on 5 June and it looked as though this species was starting to establish a foothold on the island as a regular breeding species. However, the number of summer records since has declined and there to the end of 2005 there was only one more late spring record of a bird at Fauxquets Valley on 2nd May 2002. It is likely that Firecrests remain an occasional breeding species in the islands.