Common Crossbills are new breeding birds in Iceland. New spruce and pine forests are growing fast in many places in Iceland and are now big enough to be a habitat for some new settlers like the Crossbills.
They are regular birds in my garden and I feed them on sunflower seeds. This pair was in a group of seven Crossbills coming to the feeding place this beautiful Sunday morning.
This beautiful female Brambling appeared in the garden yesterday and again today. Bramblings are annual guests in Iceland. They come from Scandinavia but do not breed here.
Hopefully a male Brambling will visit us next week but then the forecast says colder weather and snow. – Makes life easier for our little friends to come and get the food we set out for them 🙂
This is one of the female blackcaps I mentioned earlier. Although she´s shy I managed to capture this picture of her while she was enjoying the apple. The other female is gone, driven away by this one who seems to be the spouse.
In former times Redpolls could only be found in birch forests in North Iceland. In the sixties they started to breed in South Iceland and are now among the most common breeding birds in woods and gardens. Around 50-70 Redpolls visit the feeder in my garden every day.
Redpolls are my favourites because they are very active, charming and have a great diversity in colour and appearance.
– This video is taken today and there is a lot of traffic to and from the feeding tray.
Another female Blackcap has now joined the pair from yesterday (see previous post). The three of them are feeding in the garden. Here is the male eating an apple that I placed on a twig. The girls are a bit shy and not at all fond of the camera.
– Stay tuned and see if I manage to get a good photo of them.
This male Blackcap visited my garden this morning. He was not shy when I came along with my camera. But it was difficult to get close to the female who accompanied him. The Blackcap is a vagrant in Iceland but an annual guest in my garden and sometimes I have managed to keep a few of them alive through the whole winter.
– Stay tuned for updates on this couple.