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Redpoll

 

 

Redpolls are winter visitors that have arrived from the North; they don’t nest in Estonia and in May they will have left for their breeding grounds (only in 2008 a redpoll pair nested in Saaremaa.

 

These beautiful passerines generally don’t come to the birdfeeder but they do come to look for sunflower seeds pushed down from the feeder, and they simply have to be introduced. The winter numbers are very varying over the years. Bird flocks can be seen in parks as well as surrounding weedy open landscapes, where they pick at seeds; in groves they nibble at seeds from birch and alder cones – on thin twigs they hang skilfully, even if the head is downwards.

 

The forehead patch of both sexes is blood red, and the chest of the male has a pink tinge. The tip of the yellow beak of redpolls is dark and below the chin they have a black spot. Greyish brown plumage that is enlivened by lengthwise streaks along the back and flanks, underparts.

 

Redpoll observations: LINK

 

Redpoll sees cat