Noisy visitor a cool customer
TODAY I’m going to highlight two of our little garden birds – one who loves the winter and one who needs a little extra help during these cold months.
1 WINTER is brambling season! Absent from these islands all summer, these noisy little chaps descend upon us when the cold sets in – sometimes nearly two million of them a year. We have talked about chaffinches before, and bramblings can look very similar but are much more orange. Think a chaffinch after a bad self-tanning accident.
2 THEY move around in huge flocks, often with many other types of bird, and raid our farms and woods. You will see more of them if you live in the east as they enter the UK from Scandinavia before they eventually spread out. Bramblings will happily visit garden feeders to gorge on any seeds. They only flock during the winter though and once they get back home they go their separate ways.
3 THE other bird I want to talk about is the beautiful long-tailed tit – our only pink species. The long-tailed couldn’t be more different from the brambling in so many ways. They live here all year round although they are so tiny they are hard to spot when the leaves are on the trees. They only weigh as much as a £1 coin.
4 UNLIKE the bramblings, long-tails flock all year round and keep close together, sometimes in family groups of up to 20 birds. You will pretty much never see one alone. If you see one “flying lollipop” you will see more. They even stay together when they are nesting, which leads to some unusual behaviour. 5 THEY are unlucky little birds as more long-tailed tit nests fail than those of any other garden species. But instead of trying again they help their flockmates to raise their babies instead, bringing food and keeping the chicks safe. They really know how to support a family. 6 THESE delicate little creatures have survived well because of our mild winters. But when a cold winter strikes they are in peril. Their little beaks are suited for catching tiny flies in the summer and in the winter they will benefit from fatty food in our gardens. Leave something out for them as it really could save lives.