The yellow on the golden oriole hits you and straight away and makes you think: that's way too bright for the UK, it would stick out like a sore thumb among our usually more (ahem) subtly coloured birds.
But for the privileged few that live in or visit the right bits of England you might get to see one of these almost luminous males in the summer. Oddly enough they are actually quite secretive and difficult to see out in the open.
From a recent visit to France I must confess I'm still in smug-mode after having a pair of these nest right outside my lodgings.
Richard Brooks had to travel to Greece to get a shot of this beauty, but it posed pretty well for him in the end. Why not have a look for some more splashes of colour in our wildlife image archive rspb-images.com
That's a beautiful bird - well done, Richard, for spotting and snapping it! Maurice, I'm delighted you had two of them to look at in France - I bet you were looking out of the window every five minutes!
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.