Check up on more unusual visitors

IF YOU feed the birds in your garden you should be keeping a close eye on them because at this time of year unusual species can turn up.

Many small birds gather into flocks in winter and roam the countryside in search of food. Sometimes these flocks are of a single species and sometimes of several species – although in the mixed flocks the birds are usually related to each other. Finch species are liable to make up one flock and tits another, but it’s unusual to find finches and tits in the same flock.

Towards the end of the winter these roaming flocks are getting rather desperate because all the easily available food has been used up. This is when birds that are usually rather wary of humans can be forced by hunger to visit gardens. Then they quickly learn by watching the resident robins and blue tits that bird feeders and bird tables are a source of food.