ok twitchers - which birds do you see in your gardens?

[bossykate]

i'm in the inner city and i have seen:

feral pigeons
wood pigeons
sparrows
robins
blackbirds
starlings
wrens
blue tits
great tits
magpies
jays
greater spotted woodpecker
am pretty sure i have seen green woodpeckers a ta distance in the neighbouring trees but wouldn't swear to it.

i feed the birds and have been hoping to attract finches with seeds but no joy.

Ooh you might be able to help me - out walking early in the morning i have seen some fantastic birds!! One of these looks like a budgie - Has a bright yellow chest and head and i think brown/yellow stripey-ish wings back and tail. Same shape and size as a budgie too - any ideas??

Blackbirds
Starlings
Robins
Bluetits
Chaffinches
Wood pigeons
Sparrows
Coaltits
Wrens
Crows
Song Thrushes
and, ahem, members of the SE London Refugee Parakeet Club!
Tits are on a roll, if you will pardon the expression, apparently. Numbers up hugely, seemingly at the expense of starlings though
One thing I don't miss out in Zone 4 is the reduced number of magpies. Our garden in Blackheath was infested with them. Urgh.
Not sure what you can do about the finches. I love them too, such cheeky little birds.

That sounds like a goldfinch swiperfox. Are there any markings you remember on its head?

Swiperfox, sounds like a yellowhammer. Wait at the top of the bushes?

we also get the odd heron, thanks to nearby reservoir

are you showing off, marina??

was it a siskin ?

WAS IT at top of bushes! not WAIT!

Since putting out feeders I have seen:
Chaffinches
Sparrows
Robins
Blackbirds
blue tits, a coal tit
great tits
bullfinches
magpies
jackdaws
doves
a Treecreeper (on a tree by the stream)
Heard a few tawney owls although have never seen them.
Starlings

Not birds but also see two naughty squirrals who destroy every birdfeeder I hang up so I have moved all the feeders across the garden and just leave a few peanuts out for the "terrible two"

No and that's rich coming from someone who has had a heron in the back of her garden! I'm probably not right either
Wasn't there some survey this morning that said how few children could identify most garden birds?

goldfinch

I can't identify most garden birds. Am dumstruck with admiration for all you Saint Frances types.

(that was a deliberate E by the way)

yellowhammer

i think the helicopters hovering over the mosque scare off all except the most hard norf london birds...

(me too, MI, , robins about my limit - apart from herons..)

bk, that is showing off

Hmm... looks more like the siskin than the yellowhammer - i'm trying to remember if it had black markings on its head though - i donth think it did. It's really canary bright yellow - first morning i saw it i thought someone had lost a budgie but have seen a few now flying around on the hedges.

Also see all the pheasants running around chasing the girls

Lots of kites, kestrels and buzzards too

seen lots of goldfinches too

what about this? golden oriole

nope not that one definately more budgie like. I reckon it could be the siskin. I'll have to try and catch a good look at their heads in the morning! They are stunning little birds though!

could have been an escaped budgie!why not.according to our vet captive birds frequently get out if they are allowed to go for a flap around the house.
Today in spite of our cats have seen:
gold finch
blue tit
incredibly cheeky chaffinch which looks in the window at us( it's days are numbered)
great tit
coal tit
collared dove
robin(fat)
robin ( thin)
bloody magpies
and our star of the garden : a goldcrest

common pigeons, wood pigeons, magpies, jays, green woodpecker, er... a couple of tits (snurk) blue and great I think. possibly greenfinches, sparrows er..squirrels (not technically a bird but they fed from the bird feeder!), large black ones - maybe blackbirds but I thought these were bigger. Can you tell I know very little about birds?

Oooh! Robins. How could I forget robins?

Robins, bluetits, green woodpeckers, magpies, wrens, starlings, pigeons and something that I'm assuming was a sparrowhawk? It was eating a dead pigeon anyway Oh, and herons that eat the fish out of the pond grrrr.

That could have been a Red Kite Snafu. They eat already dead things.

we have coal tits nesting in our box outside and considering our 'garden' is a patio out the back and is around 12 foot wide and 12 foot long, I'm very pleased! I think we give hope to all those without big gardens and with v limited bird knowledge.

We are overrun with parakeets - they are so bold they will actually 'talk' to the kids and chirp v loudly if they think someone has food and they're not getting any!

well after two years of trying i have finally attracted some goldfinches and greenfinches!