Wednesday 20 May 2015

A First in the Garden Bird Sightings

This afternoon Colin noticed a male Stonechat  with young on our fence...

Our photos were taken with a zoom setting as the male was warning us off with its call

The lovely russet breast and distinctive black head of the male contrasts, at this time of year, with the less colourful female. In winter, however, it is similar to the female with streaky upper parts, a paler breast  and no white on the rump.

The parent bird flew off onto our neighbours roof..

before joining its young on our gate post...

 It's always a delight to find a new species of bird in the garden, but one with young is an added bonus!

3 comments:

Le Pré de la Forge said...

Cute...
the big pic of the juvenile shows just how close to a baby Robin they are in colour and pattern.

We noticed ours were feeding young yesterday... but they look fluffier and rounder than this one...
my guess is that yours are a day or so older.

Today we noticed that the Black Redstarts were also feeding young... they were over by the compost bins....
and the Blackbirds aren't going to and from the nest outside the kitchen/bedroom windows....
but I saw the male, wurrum in beak, fly fast towards the old willows.
My guess is that they've fledged young... and they are in the shelter of the "big" trees.

At this rate, it could easily be a three-brood year!

The Wren we moved a month ago is now feeding young, too!

Jean said...

We have stonechats and black redstarts in our garden.
It's a total joy to see birds that we have never seen before.
Lovely photos!

Craig said...

Beautiful colours on those little guys. The bright orange and black are such a contrast!