Female Brambling ?? (1 Viewer)

A

AnnieW

Well-known member

• Apr 13, 2004

• #1

We've had a male brambling in the garden for a little while now, although he's not been seen now for several days. However, today this bird appeared - I assumed female brambling, but something in the behaviour baffled me slightly.

Can anybody confirm the i.d. ?

Annie

P.S. I'm talking about the bird in the foreground, not the male chaffinch !!

 

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Last edited: Apr 13, 2004

CJW

Hit-and-run WUM

• Apr 13, 2004

• #2

Yep, definitely a female Brambling, Annie.

 

Jane Turner

Well-known member

• Apr 13, 2004

• #3

Nice bird... she'll have a lovely white bum too!

 

A

AnnieW

Well-known member

• Apr 13, 2004

• #4

CJW said:

Yep, definitely a female Brambling, Annie.

Click to expand...

Thanks for confirming that Chris. Now the reason I was baffled by the behaviour, was that following on from the scenes of the bird feeding, she then appeared to spend the next several hours collecting nesting material in tandem with the male chaffinch pictured. :h?:

 

Joern Lehmhus

Well-known member

• Apr 14, 2004

• #5

Hi Annie,
Chaffinch-brambling hybrids do occur in the wild, but they are quite rare...

 

A

AnnieW

Well-known member

• Apr 14, 2004

• #6

Joern Lehmhus said:

Hi Annie,
Chaffinch-brambling hybrids do occur in the wild, but they are quite rare...

Click to expand...

Joern - My post was probably a bit misleading. I wasn't specifically thinking of a brambling/chaffinch hybrid when I posted about the unusual behaviour. More the fact that it would be rather unusual to have a breeding brambling in the UK. I think they mainy breed through Scandanavia & Russia (??).

I've not seen the female today, although the male was back in amongst a flock of chaffinches

 

Last edited: Apr 14, 2004

Joern Lehmhus

Well-known member

• Apr 15, 2004

• #7

Hi Annie,
yes, but if one binds with a chaffinch and breeds with a chaffinch partner, it can stay with that partner in an unusual area of Europe (unusual foer breeding Brambling I mean). There were at least 1 or 2 cases in Germany in the last 50 years.