Sweet little mystery!

Sweet little mystery

On  Tuesday I came across this lovely little finch tucking into some sunflower hearts in my garden,.It was a bit unsual but  best guess was a young greenfinch. He/she was sporting some fine colourful leg rings - red and pink rings right leg , single yellow left. Mmh i'll check this out me thinks!...

Replies

I don't think this is a wild bird. It looks like an aviculturist's canary-greenfinch cross, or something like it, and must have escaped from an aviary. Sorry I can't help more.

Best wishes,
David Norman
Chairman, Merseyside Ringing Group

This might be a bird ringed by a member of public, copying existing colour ringing schemes. The lack of a metal ring indicates that it was not a wild ringed bird, though.

There is no central register for ringed captive bred birds. However, I do believe that most of bird breeders also use a (sometimes coloured) metal ring with individual code on it and possibly another colour ring. 3 colour rings would be quite unusual.

Sorry, but this one probably will remain a mystery.

With best wishes,

Sabine colour ringin @bto

A mystery indeed, I haven't  noticed it around with the other finches over the last couple of days, (it favoured the seed feeder the wild greenfinches use) Assuming it is an ex-aviary bird it's odds on survival may not be good; not having had the benefit of wild parents teaching it alarms and what to look out for!

I wish it luck