Bird identification

[paddy_36]

Hoping to do the birdwatch so hope someone can help me with this. There are birds which visit my garden and I'm not 100% convinced of their identity. I always thought they were corn buntings, but given they are so rare I am now hugely doubting that. They are similar in size and appearance to corn buntings and sparrows, but don't have a 'cap' like sparrows do. They are mainly brown and light brown in colour, and the only identifying feature I can see is a light-coloured stripe that runs from behind each eye along the side of the head (as if they were the legs on a pair of glasses). Does anyone have any ideas? I'm away to consult my Birds Britannica - again!

[logman]

paddy, poss cirl bunting, siskin or twite seem to fit your discription. What kind of habitat surrounds you location ?

[gen2]

Do they have a thick bill or a thin one? For a regular garden visitor, I think you should first check out the dunnock. A good picture is on this link:
Dunnock

Are you in a town or out in the countryside?

[paddy_36]

Thanks logman and gen2 for your suggestions.

Just looked up twite pics and they are a possibility, although they don't seem to have that stripe behind the eye I mentioned and are possibly a bit too dark in colour. Siskin and Cirl Bunting are too colourful. Definitely not a dunnock, I get those in the garden too and can identify them ok.

The colour of these birds is mid-brown and light brown/fawn, and quite plain, darker on top and lighter underneath. I generally see them feeding from my seed and peanut feeders, not from the ground. Usually see them in twos or more, they are not solitary birds. They feed alongside greenfinches, but definitely not those - no yellow flashes on the wings. The stripe behind the eye is definitely their most distinguishing feature and seems to be on all the birds of this type I have seen.

I live in a town but near open countryside in Central Scotland. Other similar-sized birds I get are greenfinches, goldfinches, dunnocks, robins, house sparrows.

[logman]

Just a thought, but where a lot of people go wrong re bird ID, is forgetting to check what the female and juveniles of a species look like often much duller than the male.

Checking in my books again, i thought the female linnet looks like your discription and only seems to be absent from north-west Scotland..

[Robinia]

Hi paddy - try female reed bunting

here

[paddy_36]

Hello again,

thanks to all for suggestions. The one I couldn't identify is a female house sparrow (feeling a bit foolish now!). I discovered it today flicking through my bird ID guide. Logman, you're right - differences bewteen male, female and juvenile do catch people out sometimes! Not all guides show the differences, which can make ID-ing a bit tricky. Now that I've got this one sussed, it'll help with future IDs of other similar-looking birds.

Thanks again to all for your help.

[Cetti]

Hi paddy, glad you've sussed it out but please don't feel foolish as bird ID is a minefield! Wait till you get to eclipse plumage or stalking a 'rarity' for over an hour to find the sun has actually been shining on a common Cormorant giving it an all white appearance. I'm blushing just at the thought - still good fun though!

[paddy_36]

Thanks, Cetti!

[logman]

Hi paddy i've just read your 13.46 post and you have said whats been on my mind for a while this morning.(uncanny) I remember once thinking i had both house sparrows and tree sparrows in my garden, until sometime later realised i had been looking at male and female house sparrows all along. I felt a bit of a twit as well..

[paddy_36]

Appreciate your honesty, logman! Thanks to you and Cetti, I don't feel quite so bad now! Last summer I had real problems ID-ing another bird, took me ages to realise it was a juvenile goldfinch. I was thrown because it didn't have the red face of the adult...

[Robinia]

Don't feel at all bad paddy. Last year I stood for a few mins watching an exquisite 'little green bird' which was pecking at something in the grass, but couldn't tell what it was so I risked dashing to another room to fetch my binoculars. Amazingly it was still there & to my excitement I discovered it was ......a leaf. My eyesight isn't what it was. :-/

[paddy_36]

Robinia, I did something similar the other day with a dead leaf! Thanks for your post, def not feeling so bad now. Cetti's right, bird ID is a minefield!

[logman]

Hey Paddy- robinia, this'l make you chuckle!

I remember a few years ago, doing a bit of bird spotting with some friends near a large resevoir, when a mate focused his bino's on the far bank and said "take a look at the far bank, ican see a kingfisher...hang on a minute, theres 1,2,3,4 of them" we all four zoomed in and after about 10 seconds we all realised we had been watching, 4 small plastic ducks, the type that babies play with while in their pram, we could just see the pram handles sticking up out of the water with the row of little blue ducks on it. It had us all fooled for a while and laughing for the rest of the day !

[Robinia]

lol logman - there's not much hope for us is there?

[logman]

Well it was early, Robinia and i think someone put a drop of jack Danials in the thermose, now thats majic !

[paddy_36]

Good story, logman! ;o)