The fieldfare is a large handsome thrush that visits us in the winter. It is usually a fairly shy bird found in fields and orchards but will visit gardens if the weather is harsh or if there are apples to be found. I rarely see fieldfares in my garden but these birds were in my mother's garden in Northamptonshire last week where they were feeding on windfall apples.
They are aggressive birds and keep a sharp eye out for other fieldfares or blackbirds or starlings that might try to steal their apples.
Fieldfares arrive in October, as shown on this BTO BirdTrack graph.
The reporting rate in gardens is very variable from year to year, presumably because of variations in the weather. 1996/97 and 2010/11 were both very cold winters.
Fieldfares are very rare breeders in this country. Our winter visitors come from Scandinavia with up to a million birds arriving each autumn. They quickly spread out across most of rural lowland parts of the British Isles.
This EBCC map shows the breeding distribution
Thomas Bewick drew this fieldfare for A History of British Birds (1797).
Archibald Thorburn painted a pair of fieldfares with a redwing.
You can listen to Chris Packham's BBC Radio 4 Tweet of the Day on fieldfare here.
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