The Westcountry is a good place to watch birds for a number of reasons, says the RSPB's Sophie Atherton.

Winters aren't so cold here and it rarely freezes so birds are pushed here from colder locations; lots of migrating birds make their first landfall here and the large amount of coast with plenty of headlands offers the chance of good views of seabirds close to the shore.

One of the best places to see wintering birds, including avocets, red-breasted mergansers and black-tailed godwits is on the Exe Estuary close to Exeter. It offers amazingly close-up views of the birds that other locations can't deliver. The RSPB has nature reserves on either side of the estuary - Bowling Green Marsh on the east shore and Exminster Marshes on the west. Along the coast from here Dawlish Warren NNR is a good place to look out for sea ducks, divers and grebes – but patience and a telescope may be required to get the best from the site. The RSPB's Hayle Estuary nature reserve is another good place to see wintering wades and wildfowl.

The winter spectacle of millions of roosting starlings can be seen on the Somerset Levels. Dusk is the time to see them coming into rest on the area's reedbeds. They use three sites, including the RSPB's Ham Wall nature reserve, near Glastonbury, as well as the Wildlife Trust’s Westhay site and Natural England's Shapwick Heath. The Levels are also a good place to see large flocks of wintering ducks like wigeon and teal and waders like lapwing and golden plovers.

When spring comes, so do migrant birds. Portland Bill is a good place to look for incoming warblers and other summer visitors. Look out also for seabirds and waders flying past on passage and birds like hoopoes and serins that overshoot from the continent. Not far from Portland are two RSPB sites. Radipole Lake and Lodmoor are both close to the centre of Weymouth. Radipole’s reedbeds are a good place to get to grips with warbler song and common terns nest at Lodmoor.

The Westcountry is also a hotspot for another summer migrant, nightjars. Look out for these at Arne nature reserve on the edge of Poole Harbour and Aylesbeare Common, near Sidmouth. Dartford warblers can also be seen year-round at these sites.

As spring moves on and starts to become summer, a visit to Prawle Point or Berry Head in South Devon offers the chance of seeing cirl buntings. Although they have been recently re-introduced to Cornwall, Devon was the only place they could be seen in the UK for many years. These two sites are also good places to see migrants and passing seabirds and Berry Head has a large guillemot colony viewable from an RSPB watchpoint at the Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust site.

Other spring/summer bird highlights of the Westcountry include pied flycatchers. Two top locations to see them are Yarner Wood on the edge of Dartmoor and the RSPB’s Nagshead nature reserve in the Forest of Dean.

For more information about where to watch birds in the Westcountry and beyond, call the RSPB on 01392 432 691 or visit www.rspb.org.uk.