Garden birds to spot in spring

Spring is when wildlife reawakens in our countryside, parks and gardens. Despite the cold chill still in the air, signs of spring will be starting to appear and our garden birds will become more recognisable during the breeding season. From the noisy Willow Warbler to the colourful Siskin, the RSPB help us identify what birds will be paying a visit to your garden this spring.

Bramblings are winter visitors to the UK, having flown south and west to escape the chill in Russia and Scandinavia. They’re often seen among flocks of their close relatives, chaffinches. They have a similar appearance, but instead of the smart blue grey and pink of his chaffinch counterpart, the male brambling has beautiful black, orange and white feathers. The female also has an orange breast. Right now they won’t be in their bright breeding colours but still look fantastic. An easy way to tell them apart from chaffinches is their white rump, which you’ll see when they take flight.

A favourite food of these jetsetting finches is beechmast, the seeds from beech trees. The numbers of birds we see here in winter will depend on how much of this beech bounty is around closer to home. In some years we might see tens of thousands arriving to feast in our woods and farmland. In fact, one of the biggest flocks of birds ever recorded was of bramblings. In the winter of 1951-1952, approximately 70 million of them descended on the forests of Switzerland.

With a colourful mix of blue, yellow, white and green feathers the blue tit is easy to recognise all year round and is one of our most attractive garden visitors. At this time of year some people get in touch with us to say they have seen a blue tit tapping on their window. From inside the house it can seem