Finch Fest

Autumn and winter in the Brecks is a very special and exciting time for finding Finches and Buntings, and knowing their feeding and habitat requirements will assist in locating these birds.  Winter feed, notably maize and sunflower crops attract Finches and Buntings. 

In recent days I have been visiting a site on my patch which has traditionally been used for winter feed over the years, so imagine when I visited on 9th November to find a mixed flock of Finches and Buntings easily exceeding 1000+ birds, an amazing sight and sound.

Working through these highly mobile birds, it appeared Chaffinches formed the majority species, with smaller numbers of Greenfinches, Yellowhammers, and Reed Buntings, but also I estimated a fantastic 250-300 Bramblings present.

Brambling 10th November 2020

Brambling 10th November

Bramblings are regular winter visitors in variable numbers on my local patch, some years are lean in numbers, whilst other years produce high numbers of wintering birds, this year so far indicates a good year for the species.

Bramblings are similar sized birds to Chaffinches, although markedly different plumages.  Seen overhead in flight, Bramblings have a noticeably forked tail, also, they show much white on the belly and ventral areas.  Calls vary from a soft "tup" to a call I love to hear from this species, a nasally "zweeeeu", although text books indicate a variety of spellings for this call, although I am happy with what I hear.   Seen well at rest, male Bramblings have brightish orange scapular patches and breast, and i winter have a patchy black head, which is solid black in spring for breeding, this is a stunning feature of this Finch.  The bill is a straw colour.  A nice little plumage feature on Brambling are the small black spots on the rear flanks.  Female Brambling is like a washed through version of the male, her head is grey with two parallel lines on the nape.   

Bramblings are winter visitors with us, they return to breed in the Birch Forests of Scandinavia in March and April.  It is at this time in early spring when males developing their stunning solid black heads and mantles in readiness for breeding.