I hope you enjoyed reading ‘Urban Birder’ David Lindo’s latest piece for Birds magazine on his encounters with bullfinches. If you haven’t read it yet, do turn to page 77 of the Spring 2012 issue.
We asked you to let us know about your own experiences with these chunky finches in the magazine, so I thought I’d share one of my experiences with bullfinches to help get things rolling.
It’s always nerve racking meeting your partner’s parents for the first time, but even more so when you make that first trip to go and stay at their house. Amidst desperately trying to avoid all those social faux pas and remembering my manners on that first weekend in Yorkshire, my eyes were drawn to the bird feeders hanging outside.
Remembering that it is probably quite rude to stare out of the window when I should be making that all important first impression, all hope went out the window (literally) when a rose-breasted vision of beauty dressed in a silver jacket dropped down onto one of the seed feeders: a bullfinch!
From that first encounter forth, it has always been a pleasure to go and visit my girlfriend’s parents, Sue and Graham, because up to two pairs of bullfinches are a near constant presence in both front and back gardens. I should also state that it is also a pleasure to visit Sue and Graham because they are sparkling company and excellent hosts. The finches are merely a bonus! Waking up to the finches’ soft ‘peeuh’ calls outside the window is a very pleasant experience indeed. They are often the first birds I see each day.
As David says in his feature, bullfinches are sadly so much rarer now, making sightings like these even more precious.
Does your home for nature, include a place for bullfinches?
What do your bullfinches do?I’m not lucky enough to have bullfinches coming to my feeders in my garden, but it would be great to hear from anyone who does. Please let us know by posting a comment below (you’ll need to register on the RSPB Community first), or emailing Nature's Home magazine at natureshome@rspb.org.uk and I'll add your stories to the blog.
John & Margaret sent this eamil into the Birds inbox:
I see lots of people have replied about Bullfinches. We have 4 pairs of Bullfinches (I assume two parents and their off spring of three males and three females ) that regularly visit our feeders. When I say regularly, I mean every day and all day. It is quite normal to see four very colourful males sitting on our old apple tree or in the bushes nearby waiting to visit the sunflower heart seed feeder. Many of our other bird visitors do get bullied out of the way at times but most seem to get a look in eventually. I suspect the Robins are the ones who suffer the most since we don’t seem to see them as much these days.
Our Bullfinches have been with us for two to three years now and don’t seem to have done any harm to our apple tree or other soft fruit bushes in the garden. Maybe they are now so used to getting their food from the feeders that they don’t what the hassle of visiting plants!