Brambling

How to recognise it

• White rump and a more or less orange breast in all plumages
• Lacks the white outer tail feathers of the Chaffinch
• Summer male has a glossy blue-black head, nape and mantle and a black bill
• Female has a grey and brown head, orange-buff breast and warm brown mantle

Call and song

The song is a monotonous, desolate buzzing tone a second long, which the ornithologist Erik Rosenberg likened to a small circular saw in the distance. The call is loud and characteristic, with a nasal, croaking quality. In flight it gives short calls written tk-tk.

Where and when

The Brambling is a partial migrant that breeds in Sweden, mainly in the forests and mountains of Norrland, from May to early August. It normally winters in Central Europe, but when food is plentiful large numbers stay in Sweden, and in beechmast years several million may winter there. It is reported most in October and December. Its share of all bird reports is highest in Norrbotten, Jämtland and Västerbotten.

Food and behaviour

It feeds mainly on seeds and berries, but the young are fed insects, especially caterpillars. In its winter quarters it specialises in beechmast and keeps mainly to broadleaved woodland, especially with beech or hornbeam. On spring and autumn migration large flocks move in a curious rolling way over stubble and other fields, often together with Chaffinches.