Destructive Woodpigeons

13 Friday Jun 2025

Tags

Ash trees, bird behaviour, birding, birdwatching, British birds, damage to Ash leaves, Woodpigeon, Woodpigeon eating Ash leaves

Although I am officially on the ground floor in my new home, the site slopes quite steeply so my flat is actually on the middle of three levels and, from my windows, I look out over the small slice of ancient woodland that’s adjacent to this property at the level of the tree tops. This is perfect for watching the antics of the local bird life, from the several species of tits to the larger Carrion crows and Woodpigeons, and I’m noticing behaviour that I couldn’t previously see from ground level.

The Woodpigeons, of which there are many, spend quite a lot of time in the Ash trees. Looking through my binoculars, I’ve noticed that they appear to be carefully inspecting the leaves before pecking at them. Though they are predominantly vegetarian, they are known to eat some small invertebrates so, initially, I thought they were picking off aphids from the leaves. In the process they peck off chunks of leaf matter, which actually causes quite a lot of damage to the foliage. I have now read that they are actually eating the Ash leaves, targeting, in particular the shoots and younger leaves, presumably because those have the most nutrients. This feeding behaviour is really quite destructive – you can see the leaf damage to the right of this pigeon’s head in my photos, and something I was completely unaware of until I moved.

Gordon the Gull

02 Thursday Aug 2018

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

bird behaviour, birdwatching, British birds, Gordon the gull, gull, gull eating chips, Herring gull

Gordon is a bit of a character.

180802 Gordon the gull (4)

He taps on the floor-to-ceiling windows in my friend Jill’s bedroom some mornings, early, to check whether she might have any food for him.

180802 Gordon the gull (1)

Jill doesn’t actually feed him anything but, as a Herring gull, he’s a master scavenger and a skilled opportunist, so will pounce on anything tasty looking that she puts out for the smaller birds.

180802 Gordon the gull (3)

Gordon also vigorously defends Jill’s backyard from potential gull interlopers, mostly by screeching loudly from the roof when they come near.

180802 Gordon the gull (7)

Gordon may sound like a nuisance but he’s also a bit of a charmer.

180802 Gordon the gull (6)

I mean he is rather handsome, don’t you think?

180802 Gordon the gull (2)

I succumbed immediately to his charms so, when we bought ourselves fish and chips after a particularly long day out and about, I insisted we got a portion of chips for Gordon.

180802 Gordon the gull (10)

And, the next morning, when I put them out for him, Gordon was in seagull heaven. He wolfed those chips down like only a ravenous, greedy gull can.

180802 Gordon the gull (9)

I think Jill’s very glad I don’t visit too often as Gordon might easily come to expect such preferential treatment.

180802 Gordon the gull (8)

A sunbathing Blackbird

07 Saturday Jul 2018

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

bird behaviour, bird sunbathing, birding, birdwatching, blackbird, British birds, Bute Park, sunbathing bird

180707 sunbathing blackbird (3)

I spotted this Blackbird during a wander along the woodland trail in Cardiff’s Bute Park today, and it was concentrating so hard on its sunbathing that it didn’t notice me at first.

180707 sunbathing blackbird (1)

The sun was fierce, which I think accounts for the bird sitting with its mouth open, trying to cool itself down. As for the sunbathing itself, here’s the explanation from the British Trust for Ornithology website:

‘Sunbathing’ is used by some birds as part of their routine feather maintenance and is most commonly seen … in Blackbirds and Robins. The birds invariably adopt a posture in which the body feathers are fluffed up and one or both wings are held out from the body, with feathers spread. It is thought that using the sun in this way does two things. It both helps the preen oil to spread across the feathers and drives parasites out from within the plumage. Some of these parasites feed on the feathers themselves and all are highly specialised, with many only found on a single species of bird.

180707 sunbathing blackbird (2)

Fluffing up

13 Tuesday Feb 2018

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature, winter

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

bird behaviour, birding, birdwatching, British birds, feathers, feathers as insulation, fluffing up feathers, how birds keep warm, robin

180213 robin (2)

The biting wind seems to find the smallest crack in your several layers of clothing to nip at exposed flesh, your hands feel frost-bitten even though you’ve got your thickest gloves on, and the tip of your nose is so cold that you can no longer feel it. Yet there on a fence post directly in front of you, equally exposed to the wintery weather, is a chirpy wee Robin, singing its heart out, seemingly oblivious to the chill. How does it do it?

180213 robin (1)

Well, the answer is in the fluffing up of its feathers. If you’ve ever slept under a down- or feather-filled duvet, you’ll know how incredibly warm feathers can be, and that’s especially true for our wee Robin. You see, feathers are a brilliant form of insulation material – feathers trap air close to the bird’s body so, in winter, they trap the warmth of the bird’s body heat. The more fluffed up the feathers are, the more warm air they trap, the more cosy is our little Robin.

180213 robin (3)