Bright Bird-table Visitors

The weather has turned bitterly cold over the last few days and the garden feeders have been very busy as the birds try to take in the vital calories.
 House sparrows (moineau domestique) are the most numerous at the moment with a flock of about 20 present virtually all of the time but this morning among the tits (mesanges) and the chaffinches (pinson des arbres)  was a very bright brambling (pinson du nord) and then an even brighter male hawfinch (gros bec casse-noyeau) bossed everything else off the main bird table. This species can be very secretive but they occupy all the woodlands around here. When seen up close as this individual was this morning, they are very striking in appearance, almost parrot-like in fact. They are also very chunky having around twice the bulk of a sparrow. A song thrush (grive musicienne) appeared briefly in a nearby tree but seemed too cautious to approach the feeding flocks.

Male Brambling at Feeder

As a footnote, an unusual site by the feeders last week was a short-toed tree creeper (grimperau des jardins) but he was more interested in the cut tree trunk that supports a feedin tray rather than in the food itself.