I've lived in the glorious south east of London for about 20 years now and I don't think I've ever seen so many redwings in one place in the whole of this time - certainly not outside of the parks.
These winter visitors are quite easy to identify, both they and the fieldfare are members of the thrush family and you might at first mistake them for thrushes. However the distinguishing features are quite clear.
With redwings, the clue is in the name. They have a quite bright stripe of red feathers just below their wings, as well as distinct yellow and brown markings on their heads. They are about the same size as the song thrush, with a similarly coloured breast, but unlike the song thrush, they are usually seen in groups. This morning's flock was somewhere between 20 and 30! They are not often seen in towns, much less cities, but the recent cold snap is the culprit. With much of the surrounding countryside still under snow, now is your best chance to spot them in our urban landscape.
Fieldfares are also winter visitors to the UK, and sometimes hang around with redwings. They are similar to the mistle thrush, much bigger than the song thrush, but with a more bluey/grey colouring to their plumage.
When it gets too warm for these colourful birds, anywhere between March and May, they will return north to Scandinavia and Iceland to breed.
Take a good look at them. You will see from the RSPB site that both are endangered.
4 comments:
thanks for this. we've been seeing large flock of Redwings for a few years now but have, as you said, mistaken them for Thrushes. Cool!
I think I may have seen some fieldfare over on Mudchute last Friday, but not knowing the bird, I kind of classified it as a thrush with big question marks after it. I wonder whether they'll still be around now that the snow has cleared.
I saw a kingfisher about 3 weeks ago in Brookmill park along the river bank - I'm not a twitcher but it was still a bit of a thrill!
Cool, I am getting back in touch with my inner twitcher but mainly seeing parakeets in Telegraph Hill park on my own dog run. Still haven't seen a black redstart yet though, despite Deptford Creek being their London desination of choice, supposedly.
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