Grosbeak invasion keeps on growing

This year’s Pine Grosbeak invasion continues to gather pace and birds are now hitting the south coast and then unsure where to go next they follow the coastline around and subsequently seen migrating towards the north further up the coast. This happens because they are not keen to head blindly out to sea, but they are good flyers and birds have been noted on islands including on the famous Utsira so the chances of birds reaching Britain or Continental Europe are there. There have not been as many records of large numbers of visibly migrating birds as in previous invasions but birds just keep arriving and arriving and this winter could end up as one of the largest invasions ever. The number of adult males is also increasing – I had for example 3 in a flock of 9 birds yesterday – and this indicates that a second wave of birds is arriving.

I have also had my first urban birds including one in the local park whilst walking the dog.

adult male Pine Grosbeak (konglebit)

3 adult males together - an unsual sight!

In plumages other than adult male it is the shape of the tail feathers is the easiest way to age Grozzas with young birds having more pointed feathers. Looking at the tail of an adult male therefore shows you what shape to look for in an adult female

and these nice rounded feathers make this an adult female

whereas these far more pointed feathers show this to be a 1cy bird. I don't think it is possible to sex this bird

another 1cy bird

and another

whereas these rounded feathers belong to an adult female

and these are also pointed so make the bird a 1cy. Although not a goof picture it looks to be quite red around the head making it a 1cy male

not often I see them on the ground although it is quite normal behaviour

this bird which was on its own has clearly lost a lot of tail feathers are they are regrowing

when young birds lose their tail feathers (could be due to an attack by a predator) then the new ones that grow will be adult feathers. Looking at the new (shorter) feathers the ones on the left are rounded whereas the ones on the right are more pointed. The three longer feathers all look pointed and would therefore by juvenile feathers that were not lost

I have new chances to take pictures with the city as a backdrop

here with the Radisson Blu hotel which featured in quite a few pictures in the 2019/20 invasion

size comparison with a Great Tit (kjøttmeis)

and to prove I do look at other birds - a Grey Heron (hegre)

A couple of videos of Grozzas taken with my mobile.

First the bird seen when dog walking. This was a particularly vocal bird as can be heard if you turn the sound on.

A second the bird with the tail feather issue which allowed me to approach to within 1 meter