Tree Sparrow

A bit of an ornithological red letter day today.  I had three species which are for our garden rare visitors.  The Brambling we have had a few times recently but not during the depths of winter when we usually see them.  The female Bullfinch is an even less common visitor with only 3 or 4 visits a year.

The Tree Sparrow was particularly pleasing as it is weeks since we have had one.  Not many winters ago I had 15 feeding on the bird table at once.  Tree Sparrows are red listed for conservation status.

To be red listed they need to have either fallen in numbers by over 50% in the last 25 years or their distribution have contracted by at least 50% in the last 25 years.