The First Ladybird Book of British Birds – #6 The Bullfinch

I’m leafing through my copy of The First Ladybird Book of British Birds and their Nests this month. Turning the page today it’s the Bullfinch:

The Bullfinch - Ladybird Book of British Birds - The Hall of Einar

“The Bullfinch is one of our most beautiful birds but is not very common, and being most shy, is seldom seen.”

It’s certainly true that Bullfinches are more difficult to see than many other birds that visit gardens. All the ones that were easy to see were probably killed or captured and only the extremely wary survived to raise other extremely wary birds in their families.

Here’s one I managed to photograph after a few attempts to get close:

Bullfinch - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

They still are one of our most beautiful birds. Here’s the male:

Bullfinch - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

I saw one over forty years ago and drew it and noted it in my nature notebooks:

Bullfinch – forty years ago in my nature notebooks

Here are my notes:

Bullfinch - 1970s Nature Notebooks - The Hall of Einar

A local country park in Devon has routered portraits of birds and one of them is the Bullfinch:

Bullfinch - The Hall of Einar - copyright David Bailey (not the)

I now have a digital portrait to go with it:

Bullfinch - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Feel free to leave a Reply :)