Birds sometimes show a variety of abnormalities--beak shape being one of the commoner issues we see. Top Belvide birder, Steve Nuttall, sent me a picture yesterday of a Great Tit on one of the feeders we have set up at the reserve.
As you can clearly see both the upper and lower mandibles have grown extra long and are curling very much in the manner of a Crossbill. Steve reports that the bird was feeding well on fat balls which it broke bits off before swallowing. It's remarkable how adaptable birds are in this way. We checked the number on the ring and this bird was ringed as a juvenile in autumn 2019-showing that it seems to be doing ok despite the deformity--let's hope it continues.
Meanwhile, we are continuing to ring at some of the many feeding stations we have access to. We visited our friends Dawn and Murray's feeder a couple of times in the last few days as they reported lots of feeding activity with at least two very interesting birds coming in regularly. Brambling are always a great birds to ring because apart from the fact they are beautiful, we also know that the nearest place they have come from is central northern Norway. Here is a juvenile male showing black areas on the head where the brown feather tips are wearing off to allow the black lower parts of the feathers to show through ready for the breeding season:-
The other bird was a canary yellow bird which had us a bit puzzled until we got a really good look at it. We didn't catch it so can't give you a better look-here it is on the feeder-
So we have identified it as a partially leucistic ( yellow) Greenfinch. You can also see a female Brambling on the other side of the feeder.
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