Bullfinches

I was very interested to see that the bullfinch has recently been down-graded from a red-listed bird to an amber bird. This positive change in term of the outlook for its population, reflects my own very unscientific observation that there seem to be more of them around than in previous years, with birds regularly heard in Royce Wood and as ever very common at the Hanglands.

I asked Chris Hughes, who rings for the BTO at our Bainton Heath reserve if this was in line with his own findings and he produced the following data about the number of bullfinch ringed on the reserve since 2003.

2003 - 44
2004 - 54
2005 - 28
2006 - 56
2007 - 52
2008 - 31
2009 - 40 (to date)

Which suggests a fairly stable population, with an interesting dip on a three year cycle. Chris will continue ringing in September and expects the annual count this year to be over 50.

It doesn't indicate any particular increase in population though.