What sort of sparrow is this?

[heliotrope]

For the past few days I have seen at least two birds like this visiting the bird table with all of the usual house sparrows. The head seems particularly colourful, with a very large black bib, a white collar completely circling the head, yellow around the mouth. I thought they might be tree sparrows but the black cheek marking isn't there. Any thoughts? They are the same size as the regular sparrows.

(Apologies for the poor quality photos nut they were taken at full zoom through the kitchen window!)

[solus]

It's not a sparrow at all but a male Reed Bunting! Clearly driven by the sub-zero temperatures to seek food in gardens, as is the case with a lot of species in this weather which are not normal "garden" birds.

Welcome to WAB, by the way - just noticed this is your first posting!

[Lance Morgan]

Not a sparrow its a reed bunting

[wellies101]

Reed Bunting, a great tick for your garden! Male too.

[big bill]

Congratulations on your first posting and welcome to Wab ,Yes a Reed bunting I was caught out last week with Yellow Hammers visiting the garden as they are normaly found in open fields and woodland areas but with the harsh weather they are coming to the easy pickings of the bird tables well done

[heliotrope]

A reed bunting! Thank you.

I always saw them with the sparrows so I assumed that was what they were. Would they actually be living with the sparrows during the cold weather or are they flying in from nearby wild ponds?

[solus]

Possibly they are ranging further afield from their "normal" habitat in order to find food - look out for the females too which have much more subtle head markings. I don't know whereabouts in the UK you are but these icy conditions are pretty widespread over the whole country now and it's a serious battle for survival out there so anything we can do in our own gardens to help is important - and don't forget the fresh water every day!

[Foz]

Its not uncommon for reed buntings to hang around with sparrow flocks in winter, I see it most years. Gives some protection in gardens if there are sprawks about, safety in numbers.