A bullfinch family feeding session

I  have to admit that I love bullfinches. I'd never seen them before until we moved to this house and even then it took me a while to notice them. That sounds strange given how distinctive they are. I think they have become more prominently as they've ventured closer to the house since I began feeding birds in the garden more consistently.

We've had a male and a female pair who gradually became more adventurous, mostly perching high in the hazel tree which our near neighbour Cyril planted at the bottom of his garden. Occasionally I would see several bright chests of two males sitting high up on its branches.  After we built a cabin in the garden and could watch the new bird feeders up close I began to notice their increasing presence and observe their behaviour.

At the beginning of this year I knew we had two pairs visiting the feeders. It wasn't until summer that I realised their breeding had been very successful this spring, as we could see several very young ones. But after our summer holidays I saw seven male bullfinches all around the feeder at once, although only three females were apparent there.

Last week I have been working more often at the dining room table, where a bird feeding tray is about ten feet away in front of me. I was amazed to see through the double glazed door that all the males were either at the tray or sitting in the tree just behind waiting to fly down from it.  Sometimes there would be a c harm of goldfinches visiting at the same time so that a stand off occurred.

Today I saw these two together with one of the males feeding the other, which suggests that it is still a quite young bird. Perhaps they have just had another brood in the very mild autumn. We feel so lucky because many people say they have never seen a bullfinch let alone have access to a breeding family who live only yards from their house.