What were those birds?

[bitstreams]

Please excuse the beginner's post, but perhaps someone here can help us identify a small flock of birds seen this morning.

They were in trees ahead of us in East Oxfordshire this morning, a group of around 5-8. They were about the length of a pigeon but slimmer. They had grey underbellies, brown throat, brown to the tops of the wings and a black tail with a concave end. Our first thought was that they were a type of Jay but I can only find more colourful jays in the books we have.

Can anyone put us out of our misery? It's probably something very obvious.

Simon

[Hedge Witch]

They sound like fieldfares, possibly

[glsammy]

Sounds like Fieldfares to me.

DaiTheDragon image:

[oxycera]

not exactly a classic description of Waxwings, but there are a few around at the moment

[oxycera]

ah yes, Fieldfare seems a much better fit

[aeshna5]

I suspect Fieldfare too. These are rather nomadic bird- after a couple of months with hardly any sightings in my area over the last couple of months, we've been deluged with them over the weekend- not that I'm complaining about that- they are beautiful birds to see + hear!

[bitstreams]

thanks for all the replies.

Yes, the pictures of Fieldfares look right. We'd never heard of these before.

Simon

[nigel_b]

Fieldfares. Think thrush. A member of the thrush family. Loads around here on farmland at the moment, along with their good friends the redwings.