Looking out at our gardens during the winter months can be beautiful. Sparkling frosted lawns, dramatic icicles, and a thick blanket of snow. Discover what birds to look for in your garden this winter.
But spare a thought for our feathered friends. In winter, life becomes much tougher for birds. They have fewer daylight hours to gather food, and snow and ice can hinder their attempts to find enough food and water to survive.
Feeding birds during winter and ensuring they have a supply of fresh water can be integral to their survival. And it’s an interesting time for bird lovers too. As the weather turns, birds flock in from Europe on their autumn migration, while other less common birds are driven to our gardens in search of food.
You can find out more about attracting winter birds to your garden here.
Read on to discover what birds to look for in your garden this winter.
What birds to look for in your garden this winter
Waxwing
This special winter visitor is one of the most colourful birds to visit our gardens.
Driven down from Scandinavia in search of berries, waxwings are plump birds, slighter smaller than a starling, with a prominent crest and dramatic black eye line.
Brambling
Similar in size and shape to a chaffinch, bramblings visit in flocks, often mixed with chaffinches.
These striking finches are easily recognisable by a flash of orange and black, and a white rump.
Siskin
A smaller winter visitor belonging to the finch family is the siskin.
The male bird will stand out as he jostles for food on the bird table with his streaky yellow plumage and black cap. They love peanuts.
Redwing
The smallest member of the thrush family, redwings are slightly smaller than our song thrush and have a distinctive orange rump and creamy strip above the eye.
Most common in our countryside, they will visit the garden only when snow covers the fields.
Fieldfare
Fieldfares are large, colourful thrushes, similar in shape and behaviour to our mistle thrush but with a distinctive grey cap.
These elegant birds will visit in flocks and they look stunning against the snow. They are partial to pieces of chopped apple.
Blackcap
This distinctive grey warbler was once only a summer visitor to our shores, but an increasing number of blackcaps are resident throughout the year.
They’re drawn to our gardens during winter to supplement their diets.
Recognisable by their caps – black for the male and chestnut for the female – they have a beautiful, fluting song and are often called the ‘northern nightingale’.
Common Winter Garden Birds
When asking yourself what birds to look for in your garden this winter, also keep your eyes peeled for our resident garden birds.
- Perhaps the most common winter visitor is the delightful robin, resplendent on many a Christmas card. One of the only birds to sing in winter – to defend their territory – they are recognisable by their red breast and can become very tame.
- Blackbirds, song thrushes and starlings are common garden birds throughout the year and recognisable to most people. However, many of the birds we see in our gardens during the winter months are actually visitors from Scandinavia – our own birds move down or across the country as new visitors reach our shores.
- Great tits and blue tits are familiar birds in our gardens and parks, and they are favourites of the bird table. Blue tits are one of our most colourful garden birds with their distinctive blue and yellow plumage, while the great tit is slightly bigger with a black cap.
- Sparrows are common garden birds, though they have seen a decline in recent years. The sturdy house sparrow has black, brown and grey plumage with a grey cap, while the smaller and less common tree sparrow has an all-brown cap with a black check spot. Often confused with a sparrow, but a separate species is the Dunnock, which is similar in size with a streaky grey and brown plumage and no white markings.
- Finally, a number of birds belonging to the finch family are regular visitors to our gardens throughout the year. The chaffinch is one of the most common garden birds, often found hopping around under the bird table. He has an attractive pink breast and slate blue head. Greenfinches are seed feeders with a yellow-green plumage, and the distinctive goldfinch has a bright red face and yellow flash in his wings.
So as you sit overlooking your garden, marvelling at the winter wonderland, hot cuppa in hand, leave some food and water out for the birds and keep your eyes peeled – you never know what you’ll see.