A good year for Redwings

06 Tuesday Jan 2026

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, Hawthorn berries, Redwing, Redwings eating berries, Turdus iliacus, winter thrushes

The local berry trees and shrubs – Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Buckthorn and, in parks and gardens, also Cotoneaster and Firethorn – have an abundance of fruit this winter, which means we have a corresponding abundance of thrushes feasting on those berries.

I find our winter visitors, the beautiful Redwings (Turdus iliacus), quite skittish birds, often difficult to get close to. And even when I do manage to sneak up on them, their bodies are frequently obscured, at least in part, by the branches and twigs of the trees in which they’re perched.

So, I was particularly pleased to spot this bird, which was so intent on the delicious Hawthorn berries it was devouring that it didn’t initially notice my approach so I was able to get several reasonably sharp images before a nearby Blackbird suddenly raised the alarm and the whole tree erupted with panicking birds.

p.s. As I’ve been writing this, I’ve just noticed 2 Redwings in the trees opposite my flat, a new bird for the house list.

42/366 Redwings

11 Tuesday Feb 2020

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature, winter

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff parks, Redwing, Turdus iliacus, winter thrushes

Today’s walk around some of central Cardiff’s lovely parks was peppered with light hail showers but that worked in my favour because it meant there weren’t many other people out walking and so the birds weren’t as disturbed as they might have been. And that meant I was able to get quite close to some of the large flocks of Redwings that were grazing on the grassy meadows and playing fields. What handsome birds these winter visitors are, with their distinctive pale face stripes, their rusty flanks and their ‘tseep tseep’ calls.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

’Tis the time of the thrushes

09 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by sconzani in autumn, birds, nature

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

berries and birds, berry eating birds, birding, birdwatching, Mistle thrush, Redwing, Song thrush, thrush, Turdus iliacus, Turdus philomelos, Turdus viscivorus

Officially, in Britain, the resident true thrushes are the Ring ouzel, Fieldfare, Blackbird, Song thrush, Mistle thrush and Redwing, while other thrush species are occasional, sometimes rare visitors.

171109 Redwing (2)

The thrushes I’ve been noticing most in recent weeks have been the Song thrush, Mistle thrush and Redwing, partly due to their seasonal migration southwards to our ever so slightly milder south Wales climate and partly due to this being prime berry-eating time.

Song thrushes (Turdus philomelos) are resident here all year round, though there is some movement through Britain from Scandinavian birds heading south for the winter.

171109 Mistle thrush (1)

It can sometimes be difficult to distinguish Song from Mistle thrushes (Turdus viscivorus), though the Mistles have a tendency to perch high in the tree tops (or, I discovered, on TV aerials, in urban areas!) and to stand with heads held high when foraging on the ground, and their football-rattle song is unmistakeable. I saw my first Mistle thrushes of the season on 9 October and there are now quite large numbers in local parks and reserves.

171109 Redwing (1)

Redwings (Turdus iliacus) were reported locally in early October but it was the 30th before I caught up with a small flock at Cathays Cemetery in Cardiff, and I’ve since spent several hours following them around the berry trees at Cosmeston, trying to get close enough for photos. They’re easily spooked though so my shots so far have not been that great – I’ll keep trying, and I’ll need to try to find Ring ouzels and Fieldfare as well.