Greenfinch

After being hit hard by trichomonosis  (see here) in recent years Greenfinches seem to be staging a bit of a local recovery with flocks of up to 20-30 birds in our garden during the winter. Numbers have reduced as birds start pairing up and breeding but we still have a a few knocking around and i've recently ringed several.

This male was interesting as most of the 2nd calendar year Greenfinches we catch have moulted all their greater coverts during their post juvenile moult. This one had a distinct moult contrast with two retained juvenile greater coverts - probably less than 10% of Greenfinches show this.