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A few hundred hawfinches stay in Estonia in winter; we see them about as often as chaffinches – rather rarely. Nice that one bird showed up in camera view. Winter food for hawfinches is seeds of maples, rowans, elms etc. Opposite Arne’s house is the Otepää churchyard and there such trees grow.

 

The beak is truly massive, as their Estonian name, suurnokk, meaning big beak, says; no other passerine has anything similar. In size the hawfinch is comparable to for instance a bullfinch and in fact hawfinches are sometimes confused with female bullfinches.

 

The plumage of hawfinches is the same throughout the year, the plumages of male and female are likewise similar. A hawfinch pair may keep company in winter too. They fly high up, at tree top height, and so they remain little noticed in winter as in summer.

 

They came to the food table to search for sunflower seeds, but nuts are the particular treat for hawfinches. They are very polite to the other eaters, even courteous.

 

In winter the colour of the large, conical beak reminds of horn as we see in the photo (in summer the beak is blue-tinged). The head and neck are powerful, the eye area is covered by a black mask. Wings are blackish blue with a metallic sheen, the tail is short, with a white tip. When a pair is seen together the plumage of the female can be said to be just a little duller.