Goldcrest

How to recognise it

• Olive-green upperparts, whitish underparts and two wing bars
• Grey face in which the black eye stands out
• Bright black-edged crown stripe: yellow with orange centre in males, all yellow in females
• Small, thin black bill and restless movement among branches and trunks

Call and song

The male's song is a very high, thin double note "cedar", repeated five to seven times with a twirling ending. The contact call is a thin, very high "zee", repeated every one to four seconds. It sings in every month, often while feeding. Many people cannot hear these sounds at all, or only at very close range.

Where and when

The Goldcrest is a partial migrant that breeds commonly across large parts of Sweden, more sparsely in the far north, and is almost absent from northwestern Lapland. Many move to central Europe in autumn, and migrants return in April, in the far south as early as late March. It is reported from all 21 counties and most often in October.

Food and behaviour

It feeds mainly on small soft-bodied arthropods such as springtails, aphids and spiders. It often picks food from the undersides of branches and leaves while almost hovering in the air. In winter it often joins mixed flocks of tits and warblers. Exhausted migrating Goldcrests can be very tame and land close to people while looking for food.