bird identification help needed please

martyp · #1 (**permalink**) 09-01-2010, 03:22 PM

Hi all,

Sorry I must admit that birds are an area I really need to learn more on but I just saw a bird that was something I'd never seen before looking very lost on our patio in the back garden. I initially shouted 'fieldfare' in excitement but then realised it would be too small I think.
It looked like a small thrush, about the size of a robin but more like a lark or something. It ran around on the patio like a wagtail would but it was a light brown colour with a bit of a speckled tummy. It would run quickly in short bursts then stop and when it flew off it had an up and down flight pattern, difficult to describe but like a Robin I think. It would swoop low then quick flutter then swoop low. It also nodded its head the same as a wagtail would but as I mentioned it looked like a thrush the size of a robin or sparrow. It was wandering around on the patio where the snow had melted from proximity to the house and I quickly got my phone and took a video but you can't really tell much from the video.

I'm hoping someone might be able to identify it from that info. I'll see if I can take a couple of screen shots from the video if needed.

I'm really keen to find out what it was.

Many thanks

sunnydale · #2 (**permalink**) 09-01-2010, 03:24 PM

Could be a Dunnock

martyp · #3 (**permalink**) 09-01-2010, 03:28 PM

Hi sunnydale

, I don't think it was a dunnock as dunnocks and robins are the two birds I see most in my garden and it didn't behave like the dunnocks do that I see. It looked very much like a small thrush but behaved like a wagtail as it ran about. It wasn't like anything I'd seen before in my garden.

Ferret · #4 (**permalink**) 09-01-2010, 03:57 PM

Could it have been a Pipit

Ferret

Astra · #5 (**permalink**) 09-01-2010, 04:13 PM

Maybe a Meadow Pipit?

Picidae · #6 (**permalink**) 09-01-2010, 04:49 PM

Yes, behaviour and description sound very much like Meadow Pipit. With this weather, all sorts of birds are off their normal beaten track in the hunt for food.

martyp · #7 (**permalink**) 09-01-2010, 05:33 PM

Yes - that looks just like it. That's the first time I've seen one, strange to see it in the back garden like that. It seemed quite confused, poor thing. I got quite close to the french doors before it felt scared and flew off. I was surprised it was so close to the house, only about a metre away from the door.

martyp · #8 (**permalink**) 10-01-2010, 07:12 PM

How odd and very ironic...
I was walking to a supermarket not far from me past some new houses alongside some playing fields bordered by trees when I noticed what looked like a thrush and a blackbird fly off a house roof and into a tree. I realised then it was a fieldfare not a thrush! So funny that I should suddenly think a meadow pipit was a fieldfare and then look up a fieldfare and see one the next day when I'd never seen one before in my life!