While the Bearded Reedling or Bearded Parrotbill  Panurus biarmicus is disappearing from Italy for unknown reasons, two oriental similar species have arrived. The Ashy-throated Parrotbill Paradoxornis alphonsianus was recorded for the first time in Italy on April 1995 at the Brabbia Marsh Regional Reserve, where there are 459 hectares of reed beds, ponds and woodland to the south of Lake Varese, NW Italy. This marshland area was a peat bog which was intensively exploited for peat extraction from the middle of the nineteenth century. The ponds are the former peat diggings where, over the years, a natural environment has been re-established. Today, Brabbia is very varied: small copses of willow and alder alternate with reedbeds and shallow pools. A feature of Brabbia is woodland which is flooded for much of the year, and here only alders and willows thrive, but oaks also grow on drier ground. There is a great variety of plants, including some rare species. The intermixing and interlinking of micro-environments has produced a very abundant animal life, reflecting the richness of this marshland habitat.  Successively a second species, the Vinous-throated Parrotbill Paradoxornis webbianus was also recorded in the same area. The Parrotbills are coming from Far East, and the Italian populations, counting more than 100 individulas, originated surely from escaped birds. Photo courtesy of Alberto Boto and Andrea Galimberti.