A large white bird with a red patch on the head

Northeast Scotland, Scot pine woodland near the sea.

Today I saw a beautiful bird, which is of unknown ID to me.

What attracted me first to this bird, was its short song, with a bit of a loud thrill. It sounded at first like a finch. When I pointed my binoculars I saw a largeish white bird, blackbird size, with a bright white belly, and a small patch of bright red on its face. It also seemed to have a bit of black near its head. I couldn't see how the back and tail were. It was near the top of a lonely spruce in a forest of Scot pines. I only saw it for 20 seconds before it flew away and then I could not find it again.

It was not a woodspecker, nor a goldfinch, linnet or redpoll, which are some of other birds that also have red patches near the head. 

  • Could it have been a rosefinch, do you think?  That would be smaller than you describe, but I find myself misjudging size of birds seen from strange angles and through binoculars, so maybe ...

    "it was near the top of a lonely spruce in a forest of Scot pines"

    I can recall at the age of about six being told by my teacher that I shouldn't paint birds sitting on top of trees; birds perch in trees.  My experience says otherwise.  Practically every bird in our local wood seems to perch at the very top of its chosen tree!  Slight smile

  • Hiya, the only likely thing that I can think of other than goldfinch with a pale belly and red/black at its face is a redpoll, but those are tiny and you already said that it wasn't one.

    Left field and unlikely guesses would be a swallow - white belly, red face, bigger than goldfinch, but I've never seen them perch and sing; or bluethroat which has some red and black around its face (but mostly blue, which you haven't mentioned) and sings loudly.

    Otherwise there isn't really much that can match that description at all :-(
  • Thanks for your comments.
    I don't think it was a swallow.
    Misinterpreting the size is obviously likely, as well misinterpreting the colors (due to lightning effects).

    In recent days I saw what seemed to be again the same bird. Again the bird was alone. And in the same pine woods. It made an alarm call repeatedly and again it looked like it had a fluffy white belly but flew always nervously so I could barely see other details. It made an alarm call Trrr Trrr (unlike a robin). It might be a second species but I suspect it was the same species as the first sighting of a few days ago. It might also be that in the first sighting.

    The range of options which I still consider. Some of these options are rare birds in Scotland, and I am contemplating them because the ID does not match any common species. But I am still including common species as possible candidates, due to the fleeting nature of the observation, to all bird species that might feature red in the plumage. Options: a rosefinch, a shrike, a pink starling, a great spotted woodpecker (as matching partly the visual observation for the first bird sighting but not for the call!), a bluethroat (if in my fleeting sighting, I would have missed the blue coloration - unlikely, but still a possibility). It might have have been a smaller bird of prey like a kestrel or merlin (which would match the fact that I spotted them so fleetingly but the sound does not match at all!). These really were not goldfinches nor swallows. 

    I am hoping to spot it again and get a photo. If the bird stays in the area. 

  • You really need to get a pic, however poor, then we stand some chance of identifying it. Are you using binoculars when you see this bird? There’s a huge difference in the range of options you’re considering, If you’re considering GS Woodpecker, Bluethroat and Merlin as possibles any attempts at ID are really nothing much more than a guess.
  • Indeed. I suspect this one might go the same way as the breeding American Robins and the Ravens who were daily garden visitors.
  • Thanks. I am not chasing this ID further. Unless I get to take a good photo of it.
    I agree that there is no point discussing an ID when details are vague and there is a wide range of possible options.
  • The point is there isn't really a wide range of possible options, ie. if a bird seen could 'possibly' be a Bluethroat, there's just no way that same bird could've been a GSW or a Merlin. Any photo, not necessarily a 'good' one, will help us narrow it down at least.
  • In my experience, the problem with looking up into trees is that it's hard to judge both size and colour, as the light is generally behind the bird.

    I heard an unfamiliar call from a tree above me yesterday, and saw a small, slim brown bird with a definite reddish cast and pinkish breast. It didn't look like anything I could think of, and I took a photo to ID later. The photo quite clearly showed a spotted flycatcher, a bird I can readily identify in the open. (I only saw my first a couple of weeks ago, but I've been seeing both adults and juveniles daily ever since.) I'm fairly sure nobody would have suggested that from my description, as there is no red or pink on the bird - it was a trick of the light.

    I've discovered the camera is my best aid in bird ID when it's hard to get a good "live" view. Even if the image is poor, there is generally enough information at least to identify or rule out familiar species.
  • It was very windy yesterday, and I think the odd colour cast may have come from moving twigs in front of the bird.  I had several out-of-focus shots, and this fluke clear view.

    These pictures are also from yesterday, but in the open where I knew what I was looking at!