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The yellowhammer, Emberiza citrinella  should of course be written about in winter, if only because it has such a pretty name, “talvike”, “little winter one”. This passerine is about sparrow-sized so it pays off on a winter drive to look carefully at the bird flocks that pick at things on the road: yellowhammers can well be hidden among the street urchins – sparrows - looking for grain. Yellowhammers find their food on the ground: basically the seeds of weeds, to a smaller extent berries. Its tail is longer than the sparrow’s, and otherwise also it has more colours: the crown of the head and the cheeks are yellow, the back plumage brown and lengthwise flecked. The female’s colours are duller.

 

As a wintering bird the “tuisulind”, “snowdrift bird”, is not very numerous in Estonia, but since more arrive from the north during cold periods, and they move around in flocks, they catch the eye, particularly since they like being near settled areas and roads. They can be seen sitting in flocks in the tops of large alders, and other broadleaf trees.