natureoncam bird visitors

We are bordered by trees and fields in a very quiet rural location and have a great variety of birdlife
around us.
Our regular visitors include chaffinches, goldfinches, robins, blue tits, great tits, and a greater spotted
woodpecker plus a sparrowhawk who has this location marked for regular visits!
We have also seen a pair of jays, treecreepers etc.
In the garden we have a nest box with camera which will be going live on the website nearer the
nesting season. An assortment of feeders including a nijer seed feeder very popular with the goldfinches
and a fat ball feeder plus seed feeders both hanging and ground based. Most of the feeders are
covered by cameras and will be streaming live when possible to the website.
For more information on food and feeders please click here.

Regular visitors
Chaffinch: Easily recognisable by its white shoulder patches and a white stripe in its wing. Generally regarded as a ground
feeding bird, ours seem quite happy perching on the bar of a seed feeder as well as picking up from the ground under the
feeders.

Goldfinch: Smaller and slimmer than a Chaffinch with black wings and a broad yellow stripe. Both male and female have a
red face though less so on the female. the juvenile has no red on the face at all. A very sociable bird often seen in families or
larger groups and feeds alongside other finches. A nijer seed feeder is very popular with these birds, they often sit on the
feeder bar for 2 or 3 minutes at a time.

Greenfinch: Solid looking bird with a large head and a short tail. The male is basically various shades of olive green with yellow
patches in the tail and wings whilst the female is a dull version of the male, the juvenile is similar to the female but browner in
colour. they feed on the ground and from hanging feeders and can be quite dominant, driving other birds including finches
away from the feeder whilst they feed.

Great Tit: As the name suggests the largest of the Tit family, easily spotted by its black cap, collar and throat, it has a yellow
breast. We are hoping for nesting Great Tits this year, the box has already been checked out a few times so hopefully we
shall be lucky and be able to film them live inside the box.

Blue Tit: Quite a bit smaller the Great Tit, has a blue cap, wings and tail, yellow underparts. The juvenile has more of a green
cap but otherwise very similar to the adults.

Robin: Easily recognised, the face, neck and breast being orange red, while the back and wings are brown. the eye is large
and obvious. It tends to hunt from a vantage point looking for movement from spiders, beetles, sawflies etc. Also eats berries
from bramble and rowan.

Greater Spotted Woodpecker: The male is easy to spot due to the crimson patch on the back of its head. both male and
female have crimson feathers in their tails. we have regular visits from a male bird who loves to eat the peanuts and the fat
balls. He is very wary and flies off at the slightest noise or movement. You can hear him in the trees making a click click sound
as he waits for you to leave the garden so he can feed.
We had nesting birds in a nestbox last year and he could be seen trying to enlarge the hole so as to get at the chicks, the
marks he made in the metal hole protector are there for all to see!!

Sparrowhawk: It is obvious when the Sparrowhawk has visited our garden, we either have a few scattered feathers
remaining or a complete absence of birds on our feeders for a few days. He can be seen on occasion sitting on a hedgerow
whether that is after he has struck or while he is waiting it is hard to say.
They are known to remember good hunting grounds so we can expect more visits to follow, nature taking its course, I
suppose.