Any garden bird enthusiasts help me ID a bird,please?

[crazynanna]

Well, I have been decorating my kitchen these past few days, so obviously been gazing out of the window into the garden , and I am noticing all kinds of lovely birds I have never,ever noticed before only know a pigeon. I have seen a woodpecker (looked it up), some tits on my blackberry bushes (looked it up), but there are a pair of birds I cannot find anywhere on any of the sites.



I will try and describe them.



Bigger than a robin/tit/etc...but smaller than a pigeon, maybe the same size as the woodpecker/magpie.



Brown body

Longtail (I think maybe white and a bit of black in the tail)

Bright colour bits on wings

Has a call with 2 sounds, not a song, more like a crow sound.



They are so beautiful, and seem to visit every day



Any ideas?



Oh and one more thing.

I have foxes in my garden, and yesterday evening, I heard squawking from over the fence next door, and the bloody fox balanced on the garden fence bending over. I banged the window, and it scarpered, and the noise stopped.



Do foxes kill birds?



Thankyou for your help.

[RustyBear]

They have very sharp pointy beaks and they eat tiny insects that other birds miss - the ones at school get into all the cracks between the paving stones in the courtyard. My desk is in the library that was built in the middle of the courtyard and it has both ends all glass, so I can watch the wagtails in between mumsnetting working.

[hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman]

Wow Rusty, that's the most albino bird I've seen in the wild.

[crazynanna]

Yes Rusty..that's a good likeness.

Anyone know why they tend to hang around carparks?

Is it for the crisps in thrown out of the cars?

Or are they on a ciggie break?

[crazynanna]

this could be it

But it was tiny...maybe a young one?

[RustyBear]

Some pied wagtails have much more black on them than the one in Talc's video - our school ones looked more like this one

We had an albino starling in one of the families visiting our feeder at home the year before last - haven't seen it since though - albino birds often don't last long,as they don't have any camouflage.

Rather bad video (taken from behind the curtain) here.

[HazeltheMcWitch]

It does honestly sound like the archetypal description of a wagtail!
See here for google images of them... they can vary in degrees of blackness, and they can look a bit speckledy.

[crazynanna]

I am saving all these pics and going to print them off in a poster to stick on the wall in the kitchen. seeing as I have only painted half of one wall

[crazynanna]

No hell...don't look like it.

It probably was a wagtail if they are seen in carparks, and it was bold, just walking beside me! But it did look spotty and mostly black.

[hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman]

Black redstart is also a possibility with you being in London.

[hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman]

Coal tit? Though I don't think that really fits the bill.

[crazynanna]

Aaahhhh rusty

[crazynanna]

Really tiny,hellhas, like the size of a small robin.

[hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman]

Blackbirds can have partial albinism and look like some of these on the RSPB pages

[RustyBear]

We had a wagtail build a nest in a plant pot in the courtyard of the school I work at last spring - poor thing built the nest in the Easter holidays when it was nice and quiet and must have got quite a shock when the kids came back! We had to lock the doors into the courtyard and put up a screen on the window so she didn't get disturbed too much. Two of the chicks died, but she managed to raise one.

[hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman]

How small?

[crazynanna]

I think I will,Rusty! I didn't think I would be into the garden critters so much...well not the blardy fox...but the birds are just beautiful and relax me.

No,I don't think it was a wagtail, just looked it up. The one I saw was more black than white, and really quite dotty.

[TalcAndTurnips]

Willy Wagtails are my absolute favourite birds.

Always in car parks or playgrounds. A little scuttle, followed by that gorgeous tail-dip boogie.

[HazeltheMcWitch]

er, and AD was meant to be and

[HazeltheMcWitch]

balc and white BLACK and white

[HazeltheMcWitch]

Yep - tiny, balc and white ad hoppy, hanging about in carpark (or street!) is def a pied wagtail

They do literally wag their tails. I love them, they're so bold and curious!

[Turniphead1]

Lotsa Jays in North London. My DS is a twitcher. I now know WAAAAY more about birds than I ever wanted to. But secretly love it - having only been able to ID a magpie or pigeon.
Get some RSPB feeders - it's great!

[DoodlesNoodles]

Wow, great career choice hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman DS.

[CointreauVersial]

Jays are lovely, but quite shy. Most people see them just as they are scooting back into the nearest trees. I saw a couple in my garden yesterday.

[RustyBear]

If you're still going to be looking out of your kitchen window in two weeks' time, do the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch survey.

[Tincletoes]

That one sounds like a wagtail.