Tag Archives: Fieldfare

Birds, Garden

Birds at Christmas

Silkitoppa – Bohemian Waxwing – Bombycilla garrulus

The garden has been teeming with birds this Christmas. Some very rare visitors that we don’t see every year. Keeping them fed has been one of the Christmas chores and a happy one.

Three Bohemian Waxwings have decorated the garden with their stay. Their beautiful colours are hard to match.

Auðnutittlingur – Redpoll – Carduelis flammea

Redpolls stay with us most of the year and in winter they are never far away. There have been at least 20 – 25 every day.

Gráþröstur – Fieldfare – Turdus pilaris

Fieldfares very seldom grant us the favour of a visit at Christmas. Now we have had four of them most days. They are quite dominating and find it hard to share food with the others.

Krossnefur – Common Crossbill / Red Crossbill – Loxia curvirostra

The Crossbills are peaceful birds and their lovely colours make them stand out now when everything is covered in snow. Five of them have come here to feed daily and mingle with the other visitors.

Bjargdúfa – Rock dove – Columba livia

Now Rock Doves are becoming more and more common here in the garden and they make good use of the sunflower seeds that we put out. They are here in the dozens and we are sad to admit that we sometimes wish they would go somewhere else once in a while.

Other birds in the garden are Redwings, Blackbirds, Snow Buntings, Starlings and one very Christmassy Robin.

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Birds

Groups of Fieldfares

Gráþröstur – Fieldfare – Turdus pilaris

In the last few weeks up to four Fieldfares have been visiting the garden. They come for the berries on the Vosges whitebeam, which is a relative of the Rowan or Sorbus family. The Fieldfare is not put off by the boisterous Starlings that have occupied the garden and claimed as their own.

It seems that more Fieldfares are around this autumn than in the last few years and groups have been seen all over the country. Last winter, however, we only once saw a Fieldfare here in the garden.

Fieldfares are annual guests in Iceland and almost every winter groups come from Scandinavia and overwinter here. They are known to have bred in North Iceland.

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Birds, Garden

Three species of Thrushes

In the last few days there have been three species of Thrushes in the garden. We have had up to 25 Redwings, 5 Blackbirds and a Fieldfare. The photoes are taken in the garden in the last few days.

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Gráþröstur – Fieldfare – Turdus pilaris
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Skógarþröstur – Redwing – Turdus iliacus
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Svartþröstur – Blackbird – Turdus merula
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Birds, Garden

The Fieldfare has arrived

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Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) -photo from 2011

After a stormy night with some very heavy winds (20-30 m/s), snow and 0°C, this winter’s first Fieldfare has arrived in the garden. Every autumn groups of Fieldfares come from Scandinavia and overwinter in Iceland. They are annual visitors in the garden. Once in a while they breed in Iceland, mainly in the northern part of the country. Only one known breeding has been reported in Selfoss (1980).

Other birds in the garden this morning:
Blackbird 6
Redwing 6
Starling 22
Blackcap 3
European Robin 1
Chaffinches 4
Redpolls 70
Common Crossbills 6

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