I can't work out whether I've simply not been paying enough attention, or if they only turned up on Saturday, but for the first time ever I saw 3 little birds that I can only identify as bramblings (from the RSPB website and various bird books). Makes me think there's so much I normally miss that goes on in my garden! All had the tell-tale rusty top of breast through to shoulders, but different markings around the head - one with black feathers by the eyes and down the side of the (yellow) beak almost looked like he(?) was sporting a moustache! Do these birds change head plummage, does anyone know - or are there just male/female plummage differences? They were hanging about with chaffinces and greenfinches (a very small "flock", only about 6-8 birds maximum at one time) in the tree that acts as a staging post for our feeders, but made only one half-hearted attempt at the bird feeders (sunflower hearts) and didn't settle.
I posted some Brambling photos yesterday which may help. www.rspb.org.uk/.../657601.aspx Scroll down that page to see them. Photo number 8 is a female and is clearly different to the males.
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Thank you - mine were definitely bramblings, although I didn't see any speckles on the under side (below the wings on your photo). I don't currently have the technology to take decent photographs, but wished I had on Saturday, as I wanted to compare the different markings on the three birds.
From other photos I've seen the spotting on the flanks seems common to both male and female but can be much less obvious in females.