Fieldfares

Fieldfares are the most colourful members of the thrush family. About the size of a blackbird at around 25 cm long, they are distinguished from other thrushes by their blue-grey heads, black tails and reddish breasts. They are common in northern Europe and Asia all year round but only visit the UK for the winter. Most fieldfares seen in Britain have made the substantial trek over from Scandinavia, arriving exhausted at our shores from October onwards. Once here they are most often head for farmer's fields and parkland, where they form large flocks with similar birds such as redwings. If food is scarce they will occasionally venture individually into gardens, taking advantage of grain and seed left out for them by humans, but by far the best place to see them is the open countryside.

Their diet mostly comprises worms and insects, which they peck their way through soft earth to find. If the ground freezes and this activity becomes impossible then they will feed instead on fruit and berries, with hawthorn bushes being a particular favourite. In the event that conditions become particularly harsh they may even give up on the UK and migrate further south into the continent. Fieldfares are rather nomadic and have no real loyalty concerning where they head to. They will migrate to a different place each year, if they bother to migrate at all; many are quite content not to fly all the way over the North Sea and hence remain all year in Scandinavia. Those who do come over here will return home by May at the latest in order to breed. They build their tidy nests in trees, often in groups, and lay five to six speckled blue eggs.

This particular fieldfare has spent all day in our garden, putting up with the odd bit of bullying from blackbirds in order to feast on some apples that we laid out this morning. He (or she, the sexes are very similar in appearance) has grown in confidence throughout the day and now seems quite content in what for him is not a particularly natural environment. In fact, as I write this he has grown sufficiently cocky that it is him chasing other birds away rather than the other way around! The snow has been lying thickly on the ground for over a week now, and so he has ventured away from his normal haunts in search of an alternative food supply, which we are more than happy to provide him with. As long as he leaves some for everyone else...