Winter garden visitors including fieldfares

6 January 2010

The current harsh winter conditions have brought many unusual birds into gardens in search of food. However, the meeting of birds not normally associated with garden feeding often means confrontations with more normal garden visitors.

Mark Darlaston has photographed some of these winter visitors, including a violent confrontation, between blackbirds and fieldfares.

Mark writes "Each day during the winter we put out half-dozen apples for the birds. The blackbirds like them and also a couple of blackcaps are regularly seen feeding on them. With the blackbirds there seems to be a distinct 'pecking' order, with females surprisingly dominant over the males, so we spread the apples out. However, today, 6 January, with the recent very cold snap a new 'supremo' arrived in the shape of a fieldfare. He/she jealously guards all the apples and pursues any Blackbird. I managed to capture one such encounter when it gave a male blackbird a right good hiding".

Fieldfare and Blackbird 6 January 2010 - Mark Darlaston
Fieldfare attacking a male blackbird in a Buckfastleigh garden - Mark Darlaston - 6 January 2010

Fieldfare and Blackbird 6 January 2010 - Mark Darlaston
Fieldfares victorious attack on the unfortunate male blackbird in a Buckfastleigh garden - Mark Darlaston - 6 January 2010