Article for 2010 Aug 02
This article is not in a series.
2010
2010 Aug
Aug 02 Mon
I thought I saw a male siskin (Carduelis spinus) on a birch tree in The Garden. The bird was quite small (slightly smaller than a chaffinch) and was yellow with dark horizontal stripes. It hopped onto a branch, looked around a bit then flew off before I could photograph it.
I don’t think it was a siskin. I saw it again, and its bill was thin like a warbler’s - thinner than a siskin’s. Was it a wood warbler?
Wood warblers spend their summers in central Europe (including most of Britain) and winters in Africa. They are sometimes seen migrating around the Mediterranean in spring and autumn. Their scientific name, Phylloscopus sibilatrix, means “that which watches leaves whilst whistling”. As their English vernacular name suggests, wood warblers are quite common in forests and have a warbling song. There is a forest near where I was.
Both siskins and wood warblers are about 12 centimetres (5 inches) in length. My drawings should be the same size as the birds.
Or was the bird a female siskin? But the beak’s too thin. Here’s a photograph of the bird I saw:
