Excellent name, though I also feel there’s a hint of bandit or even outright evil in there with the black eye stripes.

Arguably the light wasn’t very good - these are ISO8000-10000 photos as the patch of thistles was in the shade of the tree. But as you say, enough directional light light make the photos more interesting.

Oh yes, if I see thistles gone to seed, I always look closely for these.

I suspect I’ve pushed it as far as it will go - as is pretty obvious from the sky whiting out to get more than just black shadows in the sky!

Yes … interesting, just not technically good.

Thank you.

There’s only one hide at Dinton Pastures, which is based round a set of lakes in old gravel pits. The hide looks out to the one lake kept aside from boating and fishing and so has lots of birds. This bird (and I think a companion I never saw clearly) were in the reeds in front of the hide so really close. But I do have rather a lot of partial shots too :)

Carduelis Carduelis in the UK case :)

I believe their plumage remains pretty much the same through their adult life, and males and females are really quite similar (with hints as to sex but not enough to be sure).

Thank you for catching those calls - I only ever get the raucous sqwarks!

Thank you!

Whereas all hummingbirds are completely foreign to me - I’ve seen a few in aviary’s and that’s it :)

Corvid, yes, Crow no.

If it helps, same bird from the side:

Tried quite hard to get a good crow photo for you, but my skills weren’t up to it today, so this is as good as it got:

Now if you were posting from the UK that’s from a selection of only eight (ignoring a vagrant), and at least two more of those are not seen in Reading (and I’ve only knowingly seen a Raven once here).

But still, what are your top two favourites?

Deep green jealousy!

You can just see traces of “gold” on the bottom left photo.

Slightly smaller than sparrows, and anyway, sparrow beaks are nothing like as pointed: crests are insect eaters and have the beaks to match.

That stress looks well worth it to me!

Frustrating - and telling you to watch for small birds hopping up and down tree trunks (rather than lurking in bushes) … ummm … won’t endear me to you :)

Plus one vote for Merlin!

If you live near woodland I’d be surprised if nuthatches aren’t around. I’m lucky enough to face out onto a small patch of trees (a railway cutting!), and I occasionally get nuthatches on my fatball feeder. However, photoing birds on my feeder is hard (it being a small balcony area) and somehow doesn’t feel quite the point of birding!

Ah, missed those because I paid too much attention to the bird!

(And out there a bird’s going "See, it does work!)

That’s a really nice sequence to capture - well done!

Yes, if I hear an angry screech in the day time I can be pretty certain it’s a Jay objecting to something, probably me!