Springwatch British Wildlife: Accompanies the BBC 2 TV series. Stephen Moss

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      ©Hugh Clark/FLPA

      The goldfinch is currently on the increase, thanks partly to our habit of feeding birds in our gardens.

      Of all our birds, there could hardly be a more colourful, attractive and better-known family than our finches. The dozen or so species of finch that regularly breed in Britain include some of our most familiar garden birds – the chaffinch, goldfinch and greenfinch – as well as some scarce and elusive ones such as the hawfinch and crossbill. Other species include the siskin and redpoll, which are growing in familiarity and now visit gardens more than they did in the past, and sadly declining species such as the bullfinch, linnet and twite.

      Finches are seed-eaters, which means they have taken well to hanging feeders and bird tables containing either seeds or peanuts. Each species has subtly different food requirements, often leading to different-shaped bills. So, whereas the goldfinch has a slender, pointed bill, which it uses to extract the tiny seeds from thistles and teasels (and to take nyjer seed from garden feeders), the bullfinch has a much thicker, sturdier bill, which it uses to feed on buds. The hawfinch – the biggest British finch – sports a massive bill, which it uses to crack cherry stones, applying a pressure of more than two tons per square inch!

      But of all the finches, by far the most bizarre feeding adaptation comes in the crossbills, whose various species have uniquely developed crossed mandibles: one half of their bill crosses over the other, enabling the birds to extract the seeds from pine cones and the fruits of other coniferous trees. Because they don’t depend on insects or fruit to feed their young, they nest remarkably early – sometimes beginning at the start of the new year. The crossbills are our only nomadic breeding bird, with flocks shifting around the country (and occasionally disappearing across the North Sea to Scandinavia) from year to year.

      The group also includes Britain’s only endemic breeding bird, the Scottish crossbill, which is confined to a tiny area of the Caledonian pine forests of northeast Scotland.

      Our commonest finch by far is the chaffinch, which, with more than five-and-a-half million breeding pairs, is second only to the wren as Britain’s commonest breeding bird. Chaffinches are found throughout the UK but are especially common in Scottish woodlands, where vast flocks gather to feed in winter. But, like other woodland birds, they have adapted well to living alongside us in our gardens.

      Two other species – the greenfinch and the goldfinch – are even more dependent on garden bird-feeding; indeed, the goldfinch population has risen dramatically in the past couple of decades thanks to us providing high-energy food such as sunflower hearts. Today, the tinkling sound of a goldfinch flock can be heard in many gardens. Siskins – a streaky, smaller version of the greenfinch – have also learned to take advantage of our generosity, and have spread southwards from Scotland to southern England as a result.

      One problem, though, has come with this success. Being sociable birds, often coming to gardens in flocks, finches are especially susceptible to disease, with greenfinches being hit particularly hard. It can be distressing to find dead birds underneath your feeders, so make sure you clean them thoroughly, and remove any mouldy food.

      Some kinds of finch hardly ever come to gardens, and they are perhaps suffering as a result. Linnet and twite – two small, streaky finches with subtly beautiful plumage features – have both declined dramatically, and are now on the Red List of birds of conservation concern. Linnets are farmland birds, and changes in agricultural practices, such as the sowing of winter wheat, which has reduced the amount of stubble available for the birds to feed on in winter, have contributed to their decline. The decline of the twite is, in some ways, even more worrying; this moorland bird has virtually disappeared from northern England and now lives mainly in Scotland.

      Finches build their open, cup-shaped nests hidden away in bushes, trees and shrubs. They mostly lay between four and six eggs, and usually raise two or even three broods of chicks during a single breeding season.

      ©Erica Olsen/FLPA

      ©Photo Researchers/FLPA

      ©John Hawkins/FLPA

      ©Paul Hobson/FLPA

      All finches, including greenfinch, bullfinch, crossbill and siskin, have developed specially shaped bills to suit their favoured foods.

Buntings

      ©Do Van Dijck/Minden Pictures/FLPA

      ©Erica Olsen/FLPA

      ©Richard Brooks/FLPA

      The corn bunting, yellowhammer and cirl bunting have all suffered in recent years from modern farming methods.

      Buntings are, in some ways, the Cinderellas of seed-eating birds. They are neither as colourful as the finches, nor as ubiquitous as the sparrows, and we rarely see them unless we are looking specifically for them. This is partly because, until recently, they were mainly birds of the open countryside, but they have also suffered from changes in the way the countryside is farmed.

      Five species of bunting breed in Britain: the corn bunting, cirl bunting and yellowhammer, all found mainly on lowland farms; the reed bunting, found in wetland habitats in the breeding season, and farms and gardens in autumn and winter; and our rarest, the snow bunting, found on the high tops of the Cairngorm mountains in summer and in flocks along our coasts in winter.

      All five species are, sadly, giving cause for concern: the three farmland species are on the Red List, while the other two are on the Amber List. The corn bunting and yellowhammer really have seen their populations nose-dive. Once found throughout lowland Britain, they have disappeared from many of their former haunts. This is due mainly to the loss of breeding habitat and winter stubble fields caused by modern farming methods, which need to extract the maximum possible yield from fields all year round. The cirl bunting, a shy relative of the yellowhammer, once almost became extinct as a British breeding bird, but, thanks to the RSPB and farmers in its south Devon stronghold, it is now making a comeback.

      Telling male buntings apart is reasonably easy, but females and youngsters can be puzzling – they are classic ‘little brown jobs’! The corn bunting is one of our largest songbirds: bulky and fat, with a streaky plumage, a large head and bill, and a characteristic way of dangling its legs when it flies. It may be a fairly dull-looking bird, but the corn bunting has some extraordinary breeding habits. The males will defend a large territory, supporting several females, a strategy known as ‘polygyny’.

      The yellowhammer (its name comes from the German word for bunting) is easy to identify in breeding plumage: the male’s custard-yellow head is very striking; and the same is true for the male reed bunting, with its very obvious black and white head pattern. Females are trickier: yellowhammers can look quite brown, while a female reed bunting is superficially like a sparrow, but streakier, especially on her head. Both male and female reed buntings also show white outer tail feathers as they fly away from you! Cirl buntings look a bit like a bird designed by a committee: the body is streaky brown like a dunnock, while the head is black and yellow, similar to that of a yellowhammer СКАЧАТЬ