Fieldfares and Redwings

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 Every winter we are delighted to see visitors from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. Flocks of Fieldfare descend in their hundreds and feast on the Hawthorne berries that line the lanes near us.

These large members of the thrush family have a distinctive. grey head and a black tail.

Fieldfare often fly in mixed flocks with Redwing. A similar bird and also a migrant (some of these come from Iceland). These birds are smaller with a brick red flank. Redwing are very skittish and difficult to photograph. Mixed flocks offer a difficult ID task particularly in low winter light when all you see is a silhouette .



Apparently Redwing migrate by night and it is possible to hear them calling as they pass overhead although this is not something I have managed to hear. The large flocks that we saw before Christmas appear to have moved on - the berries having been stripped although I did see some straggler Redwing yesterday.

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