An 'interesting bird'?

Whilst I was in the visitor centre the other day chatting to some visitors, a lady brought in a small margarine tub. 'Can you help me?' she asked, 'I can try', I replied. She proceeded to open the margarine tub, and inside, unfortunately, was a dead bird. It was small, about the size of a greenfinch, a dull olive brown colour with a bright white rump and white wing bars, what grabbed my attention first, though, was it's large, thick, black bill. 'It flew into my window*' the lady continued, 'can you help me identify it?' I had a vague idea of what it was, but just to be sure, I took out the RSPB Handbook of British Birds and flicked to the finch section. 'That's what it is' I said, pointing to a bullfinch on the page, 'it's a juvenile', 'oh,' the lady replied 'I get them quite a lot, I thought it would be something more interesting'.

Now, I would be absolutely delighted to have bullfinches in my garden, they're a stunning bird, especially the males, and are now getting quite rare in the UK because of persecution by people (they feed voraciously of the buds of various trees in spring and were once a 'pest' of fruit crops). But the lady's comment got me thinking, what is an 'interesting' bird? A small brown lesser-spotted whatjamacallit may be interesting to many bird enthusiasts, however, personally I find common birds much more exciting. I still get a thrill when I see a blue tit on my bird feeder or a jackdaw hoping by the road and I especially love the family of magpies that were nesting in the overgrown garden behind my house. Many people dislike magpies as they predate many small garden bird nests- however, I find their almost arrogant attitude fascinating. They strut around chattering noisily and are quite acrobatic when they want to be. And when looked at closely, their plain black and white plumage takes on a more alluring hue, with a purplish-blue iridescent sheen to the wing feathers, and a green gloss to the tail.

So next time your out and about, look again when you pass these common birds, and appreciate how beautiful, intelligent and interesting they really are!

* if you want to prevent birds flying into windows try bird window stickers which are available from the RSPB Shop or get them online by clicking on this link