Hi
For about 6 years we have had Bullfinches coming into our Plymouth, Devon
garden irregularly. The garden is an outer suburb and we are about 100 yards
away from extensive woods
In the cold weather of Dec 1996 / Jan 1997 we had an unprecedented number in
the garden, and by late Feb we could sometimes see 5 males and 3 females at
one time, feeding with Greenfinches and Chaffinches on black sunflower seeds
on the ground under a half-standard Apple tree no more than 20 feet from the
house (the garden is only 40 feet long!)
To my surprise they stayed more or less all year, with at least 3 broods of
youngsters being introduced to the garden - the final brood in August
At the moment we have 2 males and 2 females. The juveniles are now well
moulted into adult plumage, so I cannot be sure whether these visitors are
last year's young habituated to the garden or not
They do tend to come early - certainly earlier than the Greenfiches, which
are later risers. They all stay later. But they are in and out of the garden
all day
If we have to fill the feeders during the day we can hear their quiet calls
from within the shrubs just a few feet away. We are used to it now - still
delighted: but 3 years ago we would have been ecstatic
They seem to have adapted to coming into our garden at least
Ed wilosn
-----Original Message-----
From: Wim Vader <>
To: <>
Cc: <>
Date: 15 January 1998 15:54
Subject: from your antipodes (Bullfinches)
>
>
>
> BULLFINCHES PYRRHULA PYRRHULA IN WINTER TROMSOE
>
>Those who have read my regular "snapshots" from Tromsoe, N.Norway (69*50`N)
>will know that I am very fond of Bullfinches, those large, calm,
>"quietly-expensively dressed" finches with the tentative voice. They are
>such a fixture of the gardens here in winter, that they here even have
>taken over as "christmas-card bird" from the European Robin, that fills
>this role further south in Europe.
>
>Bullfinches have jet-black caps and faces and blackish wings and tails,
>contrasting vividly with the starlingly white rump. The back is bluish
>gray, and the breast is a very special reddish pink in the male, and an
>elegant dove-grey in the female. The bill is short and strong, but more a
>tool for cutting (Bullfinches are notorious for their damage to buds) than
>for crushing. The subspecies in Scandinavia is quite a bit larger, to 16.5
>cm than the birds in central Europe and Britain, and the colours seem to me
>to be clearer and warmer.
>
>In Cramp`s authoritative "Handbook of the birds of Europe, the Middle East,
>and North Africa" (1994) the bullfinch is described as "secretive, staying
>in cover and feeding unobtrusively" and "Shows little tendency to adapt
>lifestyle and change traditional habitats, beyond quite minor degrees. Even
>within human settlememts normally avoids contact with people, and does not
>usually show itself on ground, or even flying in the open." These
>descriptions fit our bullfinches well in summer, when they are so
>unobtrusive that many people around here consider them to be exclusively
>winter birds, although in reality they nest commonly in the area.
>
>But in winter the picture is quite different! This winter we have even more
>Bullfinches than normally, possibly because of an influz of wintering birds
>from Kola or areas further east. In my garden I hear the tentative whistles
>of the bullfinches as soon as I come out the door, usually around 08 15 and
>in pitch dark, and I think they are already feeding on the sunflower seeds
>then. In the middle of the day there may be as many as 8-10 birds around;
>they are able to retrieve seeds from my hanging feeder, but prefer to
>forage on the ground below the feeder, hopping clumsily around without much
>animosity, although every now and then one lunges with open beak at its
>neighbour, who usually retreats at once. On disturbal they retreat to the
>birch and rowan trees, but often they just feed on when I walk past at
>about 2 m distance.
>
>Most of the Bullfinches at my feeder are clearly paired, and according to
>the literature this is typical: bullfinches seem to pair for life,
>different from most other finches. As described earlier, courtship feeding
>of the female by the male can often be observed, I think year round, but do
>not have careful notes to prove this.
>
>Next week we`ll have Soldagen (Sun-day), and from that day onwards the days
>will get lighter quite quickly. A fixture of these sunny periods are
>bullfinches, mostly males, sitting high up in the trees (All is relative,
>none of our trees is taller than 5m!) and virtually glowing in the
>sunshine, in the posture one usually sees them in the Christmas cards. I
>have no idea whether this is some sort of advertisement behaviour; I have
>read nothing about it in the literature. At any rate it is a wonderful
>sight, these reddish glowing colours in a still mostly black-and-white
>environment!
>
>In summer the birds are , as told, very unobtrusive, but if you know the
>calls, you notice that they are still quite common. But Bullfinches don`t
>have much of a song (although unexpectedly in captivity they often learn to
>whistle tunes; they were for that reason commonly held in cages earlier,
>especially in Germany). Nor do they show the vehement territorial defense
>of e.g. the thrushes or bluethroats. All that sort of ostentatious
>behaviour is "not done" in bullfinch society, and this is completely in
>tune with the first impression these quietly beautiful birds give. They are
>definitely among my favourite small birds "up here".
>
>One question: Have bullfinches become more common and less wary also
>elsewhere in Europe in winter, or does the description in the Handbook
>still apply for most of Europe?
>
> Wim Vader, Tromsoe Museum
> 9037 Tromsoe, Norway
>
>
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