What birds (are you/have you been) watching? What birds have been watching you?

[Richard Tarleton]

Most likely to be a "she", I'd say. There's a very subtle difference between the sexes in the amount of red on the side of the head, although it seems this feature may not be a 100% reliable. http://two-in-a-bush.blogspot.co.uk/...hic-study.html

Are you a ringer by any chance VH? - this character only really discernible on a bird in the hand (or a photograph )

[Vox Humana]

Are you a ringer by any chance VH? - this character only really discernible on a bird in the hand (or a photograph )

Goodness me, no. I'm just a common or garden dude. I did spend a week at an observatory many eons ago, but quickly decided that I wasn't nearly bright enough to be a ringer. I was merely judging Dave's photo by the description of the head patterns that Svensson and others have given (while trying to hedge my bets after reading that link I posted; I hadn't previously realised that the pattern isn't entirely secure). :) I did think that I could confidently sex many (but by no means all) of the birds on my feeders, but I'm more than ready to be told otherwise by "them as knows".

[Vox Humana]

Do they tend to go around in male/female pairs?

Not necessarily. Some of mine are currently visiting the feeders in what appear to be pairs, but I'm getting singletons too. These could be unmated birds or the partners of birds who are sitting on eggs. In winter Goldfinches flock together.

[Richard Tarleton]

Goodness me, no. I'm just a common or garden dude. I did spend a week at an observatory many eons ago, but quickly decided that I wasn't nearly bright enough to be a ringer.

Me neither - I must have ringed about 60 birds 40 years ago but quickly decided it wasn't for me either. Too impatient apart from anything else!

[Dave2002]

Your starter for ten. Goldfinch sexing.

Are these male/male, male/female or female/female? If they are male/female, which is the male? [five extra points!]

Note, in this image the red "face" on one looks darker, but it isn't really. Other images of the same birds show them both a very similar red colour.



For 5 extra points, explain your answer.

[greenilex]

From their attitude, mother and son, mother looking a little downtrodden and careworn on the right...

[Richard Tarleton]

Your starter for ten. Goldfinch sexing.

Are these male/male, male/female or female/female? If they are male/female, which is the male? [five extra points!]

For 5 extra points, explain your answer.

Dave - I refer everyone to the top bird field guide, the Collins "Birds of Europe", the text of which is by Lars Svensson, the plates and captions by Killian Mullarney and Dan Zetterström. The plate that includes goldfinches is by Killian Mullarney, (a great bird artist and field ornithologist whom I met just once, in 1984, on the shores of Carlingford Lough, where he was sketching a rare North American vagrant, an Elegant Tern, which had joined a tern colony where it had teamed up with the sandwich terns). Svensson, it should be noted, is also the author of the "ringer's bible", the Identification Guide to European Passerines, the last word on identifying birds in the hand.

Anyway, after those introductions - Svensson says in the Collins guide, "Sexes in practice alike in the field". So that's that. If it's been caught in a mist net and you have it in your hand, and are able to blow on its brood patch, you may be able to tell. In your garden, you can't.

And no they can't be mother and son - they're both adults - juveniles have pale greyish white, finely streaked, heads......

Not sure if I get ten points for saying it's a non-question, that doesn't happen to Paxman....

PS other leading field guides - Lars Jonsson's Birds of Europe, RSPB Handbook - don't even mention differentiating between ♂ and ♀, which they would were it possible in the field.

[Dave2002]

Richard

You can have loads of points for a detailed answer.

I suppose one further question is whether this kind of bird is likely to go around with birds of the same sex, or not, but maybe that isn't known either.

Presumably the birds know!

[Richard Tarleton]

They do indeed!

Family parties, and flocks outside the breeding season, are normal; during it, individuals of either sex will be drawn to a popular food source, such as your feeder.

[french frank]

Wherever you live, there's a good chance an Arctic tern flew past: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-36466763

[Richard Tarleton]

Feisty critturs, too! I've experienced the dive-bombing on the Farne Islands. They're probably the reason Iolo Williams was sporting that silly hat in episode 1 of Springwatch, tho' I confess I haven't been watching, can't cope with the presenters (CP OK on his own). They did a Top Gear-type stunt the other day - a case of convergent evolution

[Vox Humana]

Mrs Humana and I spent a long weekend in far west Cornwall. Interesting birds were mostly conspicuous by their absence, but there was a young Spoonbill and a couple of Whimbrel at Hayle, a few Fulmars at Botallack and Porthgwarra and a good number of Whitethroats. We saw just one Chough very briefly as it flew over one of the valleys, calling. There's also a Dalmatian Pelican which has been frequenting the area for a few weeks, roosting at Drift Reservoir, departing daily around 9.30 in the morning or thereabouts for the Land's End area and returning to Drift mid afternoon, where we were lucky enough to see it. No one knows whether it's a genuine wild bird or whether it has escaped from a collection, but either way it was an impressive bird.

Back home we were unlucky enough to witness the Blackbirds which are nesting in our pergola going bananas at the presence of a family of Magpies. Today the trees have been silent and there has been no sign of the male, who was last seen being closely chased by the two adult Magpies. Whether the Magpies have despatched him I don't know, but it seems odd that he should desert the territory he was so feistily defending. It seems that the female continues to sit since I have seen her twice entering the nesting site today, but I don't hold out much hope of the nest being successful. Two years ago another pair nested there, but the Magpies ate the chicks.

[mercia]

ever seen one of these ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-36490552

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

ever seen one of these ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-36490552

"No ... I said 'ptarmigan'!"

[Richard Tarleton]

Images of Mr and Mrs Bullfinch through my study window this morning, stuffing their beaks with seeds