When do fieldfares and redwings arrive in the UK?

When do fieldfares arrive in the UK?

Fieldfares begin arriving on the UK's east coasts from early October, says the BTO, from Fennoscandia, western Russia and eastern Europe. The first birds in Scotland can turn up in mid-September, and Discover Wildlife, drawing on BTO data, says they "usually start to arrive in the UK from mid-September (Scotland) to mid-October (southern England)". The main wave is in October, and new flocks keep crossing the North Sea into November. The GWCT says that in some years, "great numbers" come in that month once the first wave is here.

They leave by late April. Over the winter the Woodland Trust puts the total at over 600,000 birds, and Discover Wildlife notes it can reach 750,000 by winter's end.

When do redwings arrive in the UK?

A little earlier than fieldfares. The BTO's average autumn first-sighting date for redwings is 1 October, and 95% of years the first bird is seen between 28 September and 6 October. Numbers build through October and into November. Redwings come from Iceland as well as Fennoscandia, so you can meet two subtly different populations in the same winter.

Sources read it slightly differently. The RSPB's distribution map runs October to March. The GWCT describes both species arriving "in great numbers" on eastern coasts in November, once the berries have gone over at home. In the biggest years, when the berry crop fails in northern Europe, the main arrival is later and larger.

How many are here, and are they rare?

Not rare, but variable. The RSPB says around 700,000 redwings winter in the UK, and the BTO estimates 720,000 fieldfares. The totals swing hard between years because Scandinavian rowan crops do.

The breeding story is different. Fieldfares are on the UK Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern because almost nothing nests here: the BTO recorded "a mean of just one breeding pair" over 2015 to 2019. Redwings are Amber-listed with a tiny breeding population in the far north of Scotland, about 24 pairs between 2013 and 2017.

Fieldfare, redwing or song thrush?

The three can turn up on the same lawn, and at a glance they look alike. The marks that count:

• Fieldfare. The biggest, "a large thrush bigger than a Blackbird (25cm)" (RSPB). Blue-grey head, chestnut-brown back, speckled yellow-and-black breast, yellow beak. Called in groups: a hard, chattering "chack-chack". The Woodland Trust names the blue-grey head as the giveaway redwings don't have.
• Redwing. The UK's smallest true thrush (RSPB), weighing about 66g (BTO). The clues are the orange-red patch on the flank and under the wing, and the creamy stripe above the eye.
• Song thrush. Warm brown back, a cleanly spotted cream breast, no red on the flank and no bold eye-stripe (BTO). Weighs about 75g.

A bigger, greyer thrush with white spots on the back, sat alone or in a pair rather than a winter flock, is a mistle thrush: our other native thrush, here all year.

Feeding fieldfares and redwings in the garden

Fieldfares and redwings feed on soil invertebrates first. The BTO (via Discover Wildlife) says only when "the ground becomes frozen and they can no longer feast on soil invertebrates" do they turn to fruit, and that's the moment they turn up in a garden.

• Halve old or windfall apples and put them on the lawn. The GWCT names cotoneaster, apple and crab apple as the garden foods both species move to when the hedgerows thin out. The Woodland Trust says fieldfares "aggressively defend a food source, such as fallen fruit", so a single bird can hold a whole small tree.
• Keep the hedgerow mixed. The GWCT lists hawthorn, buckthorn and guelder rose as their first choices. Holly, rowan and dog rose all count too (Discover Wildlife).
• These are the same weeks and the same fruit you'd put out for waxwings in an irruption year, another winter visitor from Scandinavia. If you've got the trees for one, you've got them for the other. See our note on where to see waxwings, and what to feed garden birds in winter for the rest of the garden list.

Watching them

Both species are jumpy. The GWCT describes winter flocks "of up to a couple of hundred individuals" settling in a hedgerow, and the RSPB puts fieldfare flocks at anything "from ten or twenty to several hundred strong". One person walking too close empties the whole tree.

• Watch from a window, a hedge or a parked car. Binoculars help more than closeness does.
• Redwings migrate at night. The GWCT says they use "the stars, the earth's magnetic field and wind directions to aid navigation", and on a still autumn evening you can hear the thin "tseep" calls going over.
• These birds are on the Red and Amber lists in the UK and they're travelling on their fat reserves. Every flight they take to get away from you is energy they can't afford.