What is this bird?

[PigletJohn]

Bright red cap, yellow patch on its back prominent when it flew, smaller than blackbird, bigger than a sparrow, thin looking? Walking about in the road.

Could be an escaped canary or exotic bird. Do you have a nearby RSPCA you could ring up and ask?

Sounds like some sort of finch, don't know which one sorry.

Goldfinch? <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.birdfood.co.uk/images/fact_files/goldfinch_01.jpg&imgrefurl=www.birdfood.co.uk/fact_files.php?ff_id%3D9%26nav_id%3D70&h=300&w=251&sz=15&tbnid=-lT4zU65KppnuM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=75&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dgoldfinch%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=goldfinch&usg=___sizqEKffejPg3BkcxDycMSVWXw=&docid=QFHF6xI-dDbisM&sa=X&ei=JTfzT4jdIoWO8gOkg7HRCQ&ved=0CGUQ9QEwAw&dur=4060" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.birdfood.co.uk/images/fact_files/goldfinch_01.jpg&imgrefurl=www.birdfood.co.uk/fact_files.php?ff_id%3D9%26nav_id%3D70&h=300&w=251&sz=15&tbnid=-lT4zU65KppnuM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=75&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dgoldfinch%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=goldfinch&usg=___sizqEKffejPg3BkcxDycMSVWXw=&docid=QFHF6xI-dDbisM&sa=X&ei=JTfzT4jdIoWO8gOkg7HRCQ&ved=0CGUQ9QEwAw&dur=4060

Woodpeckeror lesser redpoll?

Predominant colour? We get a lot of greater spotted woodpeckers and goldfinches both have red caps. We also have green woodpeckers which are ground feeders they have red caps too.

Sounds like a goldfinch. google images of one to check.

Sounds like a goldfinch to me.

the red cap (not a red mask like that finch) and the longish beak did look more like a green woodpecker. But do they have a yellow patch on their back that shows when it flies away?

Green woodpecker - yellow rump. Sounds like it except the size - they are the biggest woodpecker and I'd have said the greater spotted were bigger than a blackbird.

baby one?

green woodpeckers do look very tropical don't they, and very yellow, but they are not small

Yes, green woodpeckers are big, often mistaken for parrots or similar in flight.

Did you see it fly? Green woodpeckers have a rapid, undulating flight, often with loud alarm call.

Their call is very distinctive, again like a tropical bird.

They are sort of thin-looking though, green woodpeckers.

Could you have got the perspective wrong? Could it have been larger than you thought?

I think fledglings look even bigger, sort of sticky out feathers. Maybe it was just a small one, or some sort of mutant? I often see a blackbird that looks spattered with white paint, has some degree of albinism. Hope you see it again! Ask your neighbours?

Maybe a youngster - though most 'baby' birds, when they're fledged, seem to be pretty much full sized (baby blackbirds often look bigger because they're a bit fluffier. Maybe woodpeckers have skinny 'teenagers'

it might possibly have been about as big as a pied wagtail, get lots of them. thinner than a magpie, but certainly not a big bird like a pigeon or a rook.

it flew off in swoops, not very high, but flapping all the time, not flap/glide/flap/glide

I can't phone someone at midnight to ask, can I? Will point them here tomorrow though.

Really want to know now. Was it near your house? It might come back.

I reckon it was a green woodpecker. Never seen it before and we do not hear woodpeckers round here.

it was a few houses away close to a wooded track, and it flew down the road towards another patch of woodland.

I've only ever seen green woodpeckers on the ground - confusing, as you think they should be pecking a tree somewhere. It does sound as if that's what is was. Woodpeckers aren't that big really.

they are though, green ones, much bigger than a pied wagtail - sort of dove sized

Pied wagtails are way smaller than woodpeckers, surely?.

Maybe you've got a rare furrin dwarf green woodpecker (I have no idea if there are any such beasts) and you're about to be invaded by twitchers.

we do not hear woodpeckers
I don't think the green ones do the drumming. Distinctive call though.

When I say "not big", I think it's because a lot of people look at birds/animals in books and don't have any idea of the relative size of wildlife.

Moles, kingfishers and weasels are also teeny - way smaller than I expected them to be. I think I visualised woodpeckers as the size of small penguins, until I actually saw one.

Badgers, on the other hand, are huuuuge in real life.

badgers are like a pillow with feet.