John the Barman: A Charm of Goldfinch on Barra

Monday, March 09, 2009

Charming, pretty birds but they name call and get quite aggressive.

Donal Murray said...: Hi John,

I've just returned from Barra where I saw 2 Goldfinch. At first glance the birds seemed strange. I then realised that the red on then face was confined to uppper half of the face (this was cetainly the case for one of the two individuals) and thus, at first glance, it seemed that it was a bird with a prominent red forehead. However, they were definitely goldfinches. I viewed the birds in excellent light coming from my right and at distance of not more than 20 metres using Nikon 10x42 binoculars. I did have a camera with me, but by the time I realised what I was seeing, the two birds flew away and thus I was too late for a photo. Have you seen this? Is there a aprticualr race of goldfinch on Barra?

Regrads

Donal; 11:53 am