Birdwatching - 3022 🐦

🦉 The brambling (Fringilla montifringilla)

• Fringilla (lat.) Finch; fi nco (old German)
• montifringilla lat .: mōns, montis mountain, mountain range

These birds, upon closer inspection, are very similar to Chaffinch. And it is not surprising, because they are close relatives. Males have contrasting colors, a black head and a bright orange color near the neck. Females are painted in faded, nondescript colors, with a gray head.

They arrive early, when there are still patches of snow in the forest, but when they fly away... It's interesting here. They don't fly away, but rather "migrate": in winter their flocks can be found, but only in the European part of the country, where the winters are actually warm.

I took these photos in a pine forest. In the first photo, a teenager is eating pebbles. This is so that solid food (and these birds are granivorous) is ground in the muscular stomach, a kind of analogue of teeth.