help to identify this bird??

[craig9]

last couple of days noticed this bird feeding in our garden in doncaster and dont know what kind it is ,looks like a cuckoo but been told 2 early 4 them?? anyone help on this one??

[Ukwildlifeo]

Its a fieldfare, a type of thrush that winters here in the UK

[craig9]

its quite big ,bigger than a blackbird/thrush is that right??

[Jason Claxton]

It certainly is a Fieldfare, Craig.

[craig9]

ok then thanks alot

[aeshna5]

Originally Posted by craig9

its quite big ,bigger than a blackbird/thrush is that right??

Bigger than a Blackbird, yes! Similar size to our resident Mistle Thrush. Nice bird to have in your garden.

[big bill]

Its a Field fare from the Thrush family but larger and more plumper

[macsbram]

coincidentaly I typed the same question into the google search engine and found this site. This post only being days earlier I entered and saw the exact same bird I had seen in my garden half an hour ago. It ignored all the bird seed and drank from the pond. I live 30 / 40 miles up the A1 from Doncaster close to Wetherby.
Does this indicate that these birds are travelling further afield in the UK due to the extremley cold weather conditions or is this their normal winter home. I have never seen one before?

[Picidae]

Originally Posted by macsbram

coincidentaly I typed the same question into the google search engine and found this site. This post only being days earlier I entered and saw the exact same bird I had seen in my garden half an hour ago. It ignored all the bird seed and drank from the pond. I live 30 / 40 miles up the A1 from Doncaster close to Wetherby.
Does this indicate that these birds are travelling further afield in the UK due to the extremley cold weather conditions or is this their normal winter home. I have never seen one before?

Fieldfare/Mistle Thrush/Redwing are all common winter thrushes (most of whom migrate into uk from Scandinavia for the winter and more often seen in rural habitat. However, they are a lot more visible this year, partly because of an unusually high migrant influx into UK in November but also, in the past few days, the cold snow front coming in across the South East of UK is pushing them around at the moment so they're also turning up in urban locations in large numbers and generally on the move. We've had large movements of both Redwing and Fieldfare along the South Coast in the past 48 hours, with both Redwing and Fieldfare turning up in gardens everywhere with a higher than normal visibility of Song Thrush and Mistle Thrush too.