Is this a willow warbler (1 Viewer)

Hi, I am totally new to the Bird Forum but I need some help with identifying a bird. Back in March, I rescued a fledgling from the roadside, actually I nearly ran over it on my bike and for sure it would eventually have been squashed by a car. What amazed me is that people were walking past it and simply ignoring it when it was clearly in trouble. I got off of the bike and picked the little fellow up, he crawled straight into my hand, and I took him home. I could see straight away that his left wing had been badly damaged and was ripped completely off at the joint. There was even bone showing and he was bleeding so I applied some mild disinfectant and warm water. I have to say that I did not expect him to survive as he was clearly a very young bird. The first evening I kept him in a shoebox and just fed him some water. To be honest I thought he would be dead by morning, but when I got up early next morning I found that he had recovered somewhat and was moving around. I decided to put him into an old bird cage that I had and kept him fed and watered. Initially I kept him indoors, but it was springtime so I then moved him outside. He regained strength but, as the months passed, I despaired that the wing would ever grow back. Then in the last 3 weeks he made a remarkable recovery and I went out one morning to find him attempting some limited flight. I took the cage inside this week and released him in the house to see if he could fly high and sure enough he headed for the top of the door and just sat there. I decided to give him another few days just to make sure and took a video of him as a reminder. I will be releasing him back into the wild this week, but before he goes I want to know what he is. I think a willow warbler, the song seems right, but the colouring is very distinct, much more so than I expect from a willow warbler. Anyway, the video is on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=nanasandres#p/u/0/q8r_h5axzMM so if any of you guys could have a look and confirm for me I would be very grateful. Also, should I band him before release? Where can I get a band from? I will try and take some stills of him before I let him go for good.

Willow Warbler would be a surprise in March. The bird fluttering around in a cage is a Chaffinch.

Female Chaffinch, so I agree with Rick...and i ought to otherwise he might not send any Wings people on my tours ; )
James

That's right, I'm a vindictive kind of guy!
Hope you're doing great--how could it be otherwise after L-t Stint?

much better than i was after missing the Caspian Plover!
Cheers
James

Thanks folks, that is exactly what he, sorry she, is. I looked on the RSPB site to see if I could find it, but of course they only show the male plumage of the birds. I keep forgetting that the male can be much more colourful than the female.

Well, ms chaffinch will be released this week. It is a bit of a relief as well to know that it is a permanent resident so should do OK so long as she does not go flying into fences, or whatever she did to damage herself in the first place.

Hi again Gazzer

You won't have had time to find everything available on Birdforum as yet, here's the link the to Chaffinch article in Opus, which has a picture of a female.

At the bottom of the page you'll see a link to the BF Gallery where there's yet more images to look through, also you can listen to their song and watch videos.

Good luck with the release and please let us know how it goes.

D