Having lived on a new build for nearly two and a half years we have struggled to attract any wild birds. No matter how stylish the feeder or tempting the food, birds just past us by. This winter though with the harder weather at last we have had some feathered visitors. At first pigeons, then blackbirds and starlings but in the last few weeks we have been visited by a 'twitchers' dream - the elusive TWITE.
I had never heard of a Twite before it dropped in. Not usually found in our area it must have drifted south from Somerset.
'The twite is a small, brown bird, similar in size to a linnet but with a longer tail and stubbier bill. Its back is tawny, heavily streaked with dark brown, its flanks have dark-brown streaks and its belly is white. In breeding plumage the male's rump is pink. It forms large flocks in winter when it spends most of the time feeding on the ground.'
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/t/twite/index.asp
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