What is this please

[nursejudy]

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[ayjay]

A female Chaffinch.

[nursejudy]

thanks ,i discounted that ...so rubbish at this

[ayjay]

Why did you discount Chaffinch?

 

I'm sure you've said before you have a bird book - what book do you have?

[Phone]

NJ

 

 

 

We don't have many. The chaffinch is the UK's second commonest breeding bird, and is arguably the most colourful of the UK's finches. Shame on you.

 

Phone

[ayjay]

The chaffinch is the UK's second commonest breeding bird, and is arguably the most colourful of the UK's finches.

 

Phone

Males are better looking - of course.

 

[nursejudy]

the males are lovely but i thought on the picture there was tufting on the head.... me thinks i need to go to specsavers!!!!!!!!!!! book is called Collins Complete Guide to British Birds

[ayjay]

The Collins Bird Guide is pretty much the birders bible in the UK, yours is a different book which I've not actually seen, but I'd expect that they've used the same pictures, (they are pictures in the Bird Guide and not photos).

 

The pic in the Bird Guide does show a slightly peaked head for female chaffinch as does the pic that Phone has put up, different head shapes can be fairly subtle until you get your eye in (but can also be fairly definitive for some species); birds don't always look exactly as they do in photos, freezing them for a split second can show up different shapes depending on what the bird is doing at the time.

 

Get used to looking at the size and shape of the bill and any wing bars or other prominent markings and you're bound to get better with more practice. Everyone struggles with small brown birds when they are starting out.

[nursejudy]

the picutres are photographs ,i will keep at it,thanks

[gozzer]

I'm glad you posted this Judy, I saw a similar thing in the park the other day. I thought female chaffinch, but the head looked odd, with a tuft like your picture. Then I realised that the breeze must have been just lifting the head feathers a little, as when it turned round on the branch, the tuft disappeared. If i'd taken a picture it would have looked like yours, just for that moment.

 

John.