The Blackcap likes apples. The male Blackcap has a black cap but the female has a brown cap. Watch the Blackcap nibbling on the apple.
Category Archives: Garden
Blackbird – Turdus merula
This Blackbird is one of a group of eight Blackbirds that are in the garden now. This is a young male which can be seen from the dark brown colour and the colour of its beak, similar to the female’s colours.
When it grows up it becomes black and the beak becomes bright orange-yellow. It also gets an eye-ring of the same colour. This makes the adult male Blackbird one of the most striking garden birds. The song of the Blackbird is also very vocal so it does not go unnoticed.
Today’s garden birds
This weekend my students at the local secondary school are counting their garden birds. Of course I took part in this interesting project and counted the birds in my garden in the hours between 11 and 12 am. I also took some photoes, but that goes without saying 😉
Weather: NE 12 m/sec, clear sky and temperature 0°C.
In this one hour I counted:
Redpolls 40
Starlings 27
Blackbirds 6
Chaffinches 4
Redwings 2
Blackcap 1
Nú um helgina eru nemendur mínir í FSu að telja garðfuglana sína. Ég tók að sjálfsögðu líka þátt í þessu skemmtilega verkefni og taldi garðfuglana mína á milli kl. 11:00 og 12:00 í morgun. Jafnframt tók ég myndir af nokkrum tegundum.
Niðurstaðan:
Auðnutittlingur 40
Stari 27
Svartþröstur 6
Bókfinka 4
Skógarþröstur 2
Hettusöngvari 1
In the palm of my hand
In the winter time when it’s really cold outside the Redpolls come and eat from the palm of my hand. They like the seed blends you can buy for Canaries and Finches. You can usually buy them in grocery stores and pet stores.
Holding them in your hand gives you a very special feeling which is not easy to describe. You could say that I feel like I enjoy some privilege not everyone has access to. –It’s a wonderful feeling.
The smallest bird in Europe
The Goldcrest is the smallest bird in Europe, weighing only 5-7 grammes. In 1996 the first known breeding in Iceland was confirmed and since then their numbers have increased. Today they are common breeding birds in spruce forrests. For two years now they have been breeding here and in spruce trees in adjoining gardens. We see these tiny little birds with their golden crown almost daily.
Overnight guests
Hundreds of Starlings stay in our garden every night. Just before dark they come from all directions and in huge flocks they fly in big circles before they land in the trees. They found this place to overnight 25 years ago and have now decided to return.
Starlings have overnighted in different places around Selfoss through the years, changing places regulary.
Three different Finches
This autumn three different finch species visited the garden. All rare birds in Iceland.
A male Siskin was here in the beginning of October, a female Brambling in the middle of October and now there are two Chaffinches, a pair.
It is getting darker in the afternoon and difficult to get good photoes of the birds, especially on cloudy days like today.
But I managed to get these three photoes, –not as bad as I thought.
Time flies – November is here
Next week the weather forecast is predicting colder weather. Then we can expect more birds in the garden. Today we have around 15 Redpolls, 10 Starlings, five Blackbirds, two Redwings,two male Blackcaps and a female Caffinch. There was also a Raven but they tend to stick to the treetops.
We can usually see several Ravens in the sky above our house and by the river. They are a sight to see and you might think they were showing off their flight agility. Sometimes when they visit the garden they remind us of naughty kids, – full of mischief, sitting in the top of the trees breaking off branches and crowing loudly.
Being different
Most of the Redpolls we see are just the ordinary Icelandic ones but once in a while you see an individual bird that stands out from the rest. This autumn we had a Redpoll that was quite different. It was a very beautiful and much whiter Redpoll than the ordinary ones.
Early in 2011 we also had a Redpoll that was different. News spread around town of a small white bird that came into gardens with a group of Redpolls. The local paper even had some news on this peculiar bird. The bird turned out to be a white Redpoll. It was first spotted in autumn 2010 and was seen in Selfoss most days until the end of March 2011.
Read more in articles: White Redpoll
Colourful Starling
This beautiful Starling is one of the birds that appreciates an apple. Not everyone likes the Starlings because they come in flocks, are noisy and boisterous and people believe they above other birds carry lice. All birds carry lice. The Starlings are bossy and often run other birds away, especially if there are some tasty bites to have. The Starlings that overnight in our garden and adjacent trees are probably well over two hundred and when they arrive in the twilight there is a lot of noise.