The Wildlife of
Croome

 
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Warblers, Crests and Flycatchers - The Goldcrest

First seen on Wednesday 16th March 2016 at Croome

This tiny bird is one of my favourites at Croome. When you are walking near trees you are probably never too far from a goldcrest. They are in many of the trees around the lake, but often favour the yew trees. You may be alerted to them by their call, but this is quite quiet and very high-pitched, so you need good hearing.

To see them you have to pick a relatively calm day, stand still and look up into the tree for movement. They can usually be seen hopping around the branches looking for food, often hanging upside down. They move quite quickly, rarely staying in the same place for more than a few seconds. if you stay still, they will often ignore you and carry on looking for food until they decide to move to an adjacent tree.


 

Easily identified by their vivid yellow crest, which can sometimes be almost orange. Not to be confused with the firecrest, which has more of a stripe around the eyes rather than the goldcrest's circle. I've yet to see a firecrest (ever hopeful though...)