Send us your wildlife sightings

Why send us your bullfinch sightings?

The bullfinch is a beautiful, striking bird. Keep your eyes peeled for the male's bright red chest and the distinctive white rump seen when in flight.  The British Trust for Ornithology’s Garden BirdWatch shows that bullfinches are typically seen in fewer than 10% of gardens in any week, with them preferring rural gardens close to woodlands.
 
Since 1967 the UK bullfinch has declined by 36% and is currently listed as an ‘amber’ species of conservation concern. This decline is thought to be due to agricultural intensification and reduced diversity in woodlands.
 
Despite their bright colour the bullfinch is not always that easy to spot.  Listen out for their low-pitched, short whistle around hedgerows and within woodlands.

 

Why do we want your yellowhammer sightings?

Yellowhammers are a bird associated with the wider countryside, liking hedgerows where suitable song posts are present.  This bird, like the bullfinch, is also very distinctive with its bright yellow plumage and a song that sounds like it is saying ‘a little bit of bread and no cheese’.
 
Due to its rapid decline (more than 50%) it is now listed as a ‘red’ species of conservation concern and is a UK Biodiversity Action Plan Priority Species. This decline is thought to be linked to the availability of food.
 
Keep your eyes peeled this winter when you are out in open countryside, especially if there are hedgerows present.  In winter, if there is snow cover, yellowhammers may be seen to come into rural gardens in search of food, so don’t be surprised if you see them near your bird feeders.

Why do we want your brambling sightings?

Unlike the bullfinch and the yellowhammer the brambling may be overlooked or mistaken, for a chaffinch.  Although similar in size, the key difference is its white rump and its orange and buff colouration, with the male being more strongly marked than the females and juveniles. If you see a flock of finches it is always worth checking to see if a brambling is in the mix.
 
Bramblings are migrants, and the number of individuals coming in can depend on the availability of beech masts – a staple diet of this finch. If walking in a beech woodland this winter keep your eyes peeled for a brambling. If we have another cold winter we may see more visiting our gardens.

Brambling

• Male bramblings tend to winter further north than females, a behaviour also seen in chaffinches.
• Unlike most finches, their young are fed extensively on insects.
• A group of finches has many collective nouns, including a "charm", "company", and "trembling" of finches.
• The global population of the brambling is estimated to range between 79 and 246 million individuals.
• The brambling is also known as ‘cock of the north’.

Yellowhammer

• The nest of a yellowhammer is built by the female and is made up of a mixture of various plant matter, dry grass, stalks and leaves.
• The eggs are patterned with fine dark lines which gives rise to the old name for the bird of ‘scribble lark’.
• Poems by Robert Burns and John Clare have referred to the yellowhammer.
• The song of the yellowhammer was supposed to have influenced Beethoven when he composed his 5th Symphony.
• Yellowhammer males learn their songs from their fathers, and over the course of time regional dialects have developed.

Bullfinch

• Bullfinches were kept as cage birds in time gone by as they are skilful mimics and so would be taught to skill different tunes.
• Bullfinches are so called because of their front-heavy bull-headed appearance.
• Bullfinches were once considered a serious pest in orchards, so much so that in the 16th century, Henry VIII condemned their 'criminal attacks' on fruit trees, and an Act of Parliament declared that one penny would be paid for every bird killed. However, research has shown that a fruit tree can lose up to half it buds without affecting the harvest – so, the culling of bullfinches was likely to be unnecessary.
• Bullfinches form long lasting bond pairs.
• British birds are highly sedentary, seldom moving more than a few kilometres during their lives.