Can someone point me in the right direction?

[marian's birds]

I spotted a pair of birds this afternoon, that I've never seen before - unfortunately I didn't have a camera with me.

I am totally clueless as to what they were.

Slightly smaller than blue tit, fairly bright yellow front, greenish/brownish back, yellow and black on the head and they made a very rapid "peepeepeepee" noise.

I was on a public footpath at the time with houses to one side and open farmland with hedgerows at the other and a small area of decidious woodland about 50 metres ahead.

Any suggestions, please, so that I can try and find them in my birdbooks?

Thanks in advance.

[Birdman1976]

How about Goldcrest?

[david156]

sounds like a Goldcrest to me

[Hedgehoggy]

My first thought was Siskin?

[marian's birds]

Thank you very much birdman and david.

I've checked my books and they were goldcrests.

Now, can anyone give me some tips? I have 3 different bird books. But when you're completely clueless as to what you've seen/you're looking at, how do you find them in a book?

[slimrbp]

It's a bit tricky if you don't know where to start,I often resort to flicking through.
Although I have used this bird identifier on the RSPB site which can help narrow down the suspects.

The RSPB: Bird identifier

[ladyhawk]

must learn to read haha sounds like goldcrest's was just in the middle of looking at pics of siskins that i took earlier