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Redpolls are pretty and likeable and not particularly shy of people. The carmine red forehead and the yellow beak catch the eye. The back and sides of the birds are lengthwise streaked. The male birds have a pinkish chest to show off. The plumage colour varies widely among individuals, some can even lack the species characteristic – the red forehead. In size the redpolls come somewhere between great and blue tits in weight.

 

We can only meet redpolls in Estonia during the migration periods and in winter – they don’t nest here. The winter abundance depends on the quality of the seed year, they feed on birch as well as alder seeds and those of weeds sticking up from the snow. Bird feeders are discovered in cold weather; they always move around in groups, mostly in rural areas or city outskirts. They mostly feed on the ground, from the seeds that others have spilled on to the ground. The number of winterers is highly varying over the years – from ten thousand up to half a million birds. In March the first groups of redpolls start migrating to their breeding areas in the tundra; during that time they can be quite loud-voiced in stands of deciduous trees.