Female Chaffinch ( Fringilla coelebs ).

As it is the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch weekend I decided all my blips should be birds.  Today the birds were posing for the paparazzo so the female Chaffinch is the best I got.

The BTO Bird Trends shows the population as having crashed from 150% of the 1970 population to around 95%  in the last decade.  It leaves you wondering why.  I assume they are probably affected by Trichosomosis like Greenfinches.

The species does move around quite a bit as ringing recoveries show.  One bird ringed in Orkney was killed by a cat 2y 9m 17d later.  A bird ringed in fair Isle was recaught by a ringer in Helgoland Germany four days later.  Another made a journey of 2338 Km from Swindon to the Russian Federation.