Struggling a bit!

 Normally by this time of year we are building up really big numbers of Redwings--as I have mentioned in previous years. But for some reason this year is different. Team members are putting in the hours, but there are fewer birds around-where we would be expecting to ring 50 or so per day, the numbers currently are nearer5-10 per day. We will have to wait for the annual BTO report on ringing to see if this is part of a national trend or something local.

One of the species which we are ringing good numbers of is Goldcrest. Many of these birds will be UK breeders--but our wintering population is bolstered by lots of migrants from Scandinavia--birds which would starve though lack of insects in the cold north. I though you might like to see an interesting sexual difference in plumage.....

Here is the top of the head of a bird caught this morning--showing why perhaps it's called a Goldcrest. All females have a head colour like this with a yellow stripe down the centre of the crown.

However, if the yellow feathers are parted and the crown then looks like this....

The golden orange feathers underneath show that this bird is in fact a male. When in the breeding season, male Goldcrests can part the crown feathers and erect the orange ones to display to the females--pretty cool....

We have also been hearing about an influx of Coal Tits from the continent also. This bird is a UK bred individual as can be seen by some of the buff tones on the flanks and on the back....

Continental birds are much greyer on the back. Also note the very marked white stripe on the back of the head which is typical of Coal Tit. The following picture shows how we age this species....

We need to look carefully at the greater covert feathers which are those above the coloured lines. You can see that the feathers above the red line are almost black in their centre--these are adult type feathers which have been moulted in over recent months. However, those above the yellow line have lighter centres--these are juvenile feathers showing that this is a bird hatched this year. Have a look on your  feeders--it's very difficult to see in the field especially as Coal Tits typically fly on and off the feeders very quickly--so good luck!!