Spotted a new visitor at the fat balls today. I thought it was a robin even though our resident robin ignores the fat balls, but no red breast. Husband thought it looked more like a blackcap, but without the black cap. Our bird book suggested it was a garden warbler but also stated these birds migrate in the winter - found a good picture on the internet and it certainly looked similar. The Bristol area might be milder than more northerly areas of the British Isles but even so... Anyone got any other suggestions what our mystery bird might be.
We live in a small town outside of Bristol with allotments and open farmland within 500m. Sorry it was gone too quickly to get a picture.
Could have been a female Blackcap, but if so the cap was similar in colouring to the rest of the bird. I thought these were also migrants though?
Here's a picture of a female Blackcap (taken off of Google, not my photo!)
Home again, home again.
Check it: http://sarahwestsblog.blogspot.co.uk/
Unknown said:What about a Chiffchaff
If it's not a Blackcap and it looked like a warbler then Bob's suggestion of a Chiffchaff is a possibility. Quite a few do overwinter and in fact I've seen a couple on my local patch.
This is the normal one that we see in western Europe.
And this is probably the "Siberian" sub-species which sometimes crops up in winter but is much less common.
The "normal" one can however look much greyer than the one I've shown.
PS Having said that I've never seen a Chiffchaff on a feeder although Blackcaps most certainly will.
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Tony
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We have dunnocks which eat our fat balls.. they also have that 'fast movement' of a robin and orange coloured legs. :)