Another dig into the archive folks. This time it’s all about the thrush family, comprising blackbird, song thrush, fieldfare, redwing and mistle thrush. The last three are winter visitors from colder climes, often in large, sometimes mixed, flocks.

This male blackbird was keen to use the feeder even though it was snowing. The female blackbird is mainly brown. They are sometimes so speckled that they can be mistaken for song thrushes. Juvenile blackbirds start out looking like mummy but you can see from the adult plumage developing from the tail end that he will definitely take after daddy.

Song thrushes can often be seen on top of trees singing very loudly, a real sign of Spring.

The fieldfare, like all the thrushes, go for these red berries.

Finally the redwing takes its name from the red plumage near and under the wings.