Thursday 16 February 2012

The Curious Case Of The Bright Orange Dead Bird

On my lunchtime walkies with the dog today, something bright caught my eye.

In a bush, still clamped on to a twig but upside down, was this bird - dead as a dodo, with an almost fluorescent orange breast and a jet black head.

Apologies to the squeamish.

Being a little ornotholgically challenged, I have no idea what type of bird it might be (perhaps someone who knows could tell me?). I also don't know what happened to it - it wasn't that cold last night and it didn't have any obvious wounds.

Curious!

7 comments:

  1. I'm very much an amateur, but my guess is some kind of finch - bullfinch, chaffinch? Male, because of the brightness of the chest colours.

    if you are interested, the RSPB has a nifty online ID-tool for amateurs like me - http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdidentifier/

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  2. Ah! Thanks Maria, it is indeed a bullfinch. Was a bullfinch. Poor thing.

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  3. Aha was just about to say bullfinch! What a shame, they are beautiful birds :-(

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  4. Poor little thing, slightly odd that it was still clinging to the branch too :(

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  5. It's an amber status bird so your local RSPB might be interested to know about it. They might not - depends how keen on stuff like that your local lot are - round here I know they'd want to know, though. Beautiful little bird - how sad.

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    1. Thanks Robyn, I will let them know.

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    2. I took some photos of a bullfinch in the snow see here: http://livingin22.blogspot.fr/2010/12/thursday-2-december-2010-surprise-this.html

      I'd never seen one before and it was so lovely to see one in my garden just outside the window, but very difficult to get a decent photograph without frightening it away.

      Sandra
      http://livingin22.blogspot.com

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