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What are these birds?

Jennym83Jennym83 Posts: 41
in Wildlife gardening
My garden birds haven’t been visiting as much for the last week or so so seeing a new bird this morning really made my day! 
I cant quite identify it though. I did get a video, which I’ve taken stills from, hence the bad quality, but I don’t know if I can upload a video. 
At first I thought pied wagtail but now I’m not sure. 
One seems to have a white chest and one has white to under its chin then a black tummy. 
Hopefully someone can help, sorry for the poor pictures. 
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Posts

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Lots of photos, unfortunately all blurred, by the length of the tail it could be a wagtail. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Dave HumbyDave Humby Posts: 1,145
    edited July 2019
    Long-tailed Tits 
  • Jennym83Jennym83 Posts: 41
    Long tailed tits was my second guess. So the one with the black tummy, is that make/female/young? Or do some just have a black tummy? Google shows no pictures of any with a black tummy. 
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Do they come in a swoop of several at one time? Long tailed tits tend to do that.

    Wagtails are a bit more solitary, and it would also be very unusual to see them feed at that type of feeder too. 
    The photos are really too blurry to be definite though.

    I think you can upload videos, but not sure how you do it, although I was thinking of doing the same as we have clouds of painted ladies here just now in the garden.  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Jennym83Jennym83 Posts: 41
    There was just 1 a couple of times, then as I was filming the second one flew down. 
    I’ve literally just missed one, it flew off as I tried to take a picture x
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497

    Jennym83 said:
    Long tailed tits was my second guess. So the one with the black tummy, is that make/female/young? Or do some just have a black tummy? Google shows no pictures of any with a black tummy. 
    Have a look at the juvenile pic on this link. The patterns are quite different and darker than the adults. Your dark one might also have a touch of melanism if it's especially dark.

    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • Fishy65Fishy65 Posts: 2,276
    100% Long-tailed tits
  • Guernsey Donkey2Guernsey Donkey2 Posts: 6,713
    Agree long tailed tits, we have had one's, two's and very pleasing to see 6 together recently.  I was over the moon!
  • Jennym83Jennym83 Posts: 41
    Oh excellent thank you so much! Hopefully they’ll become a regular visitor! 
    Is there anything they particularly like to eat so I can tempt them into becoming regular visitors?
  • pr1mr0sepr1mr0se Posts: 1,193
    Long tailed tits.  They tend to come mob-handed from time to time, and swoop down in a noisy flock, raiding the bird feeders - and then fly off for several days or weeks even.  They are a joy to behold, and it seems a shame that they are infrequent visitors - but very welcome, for all that.  We hear them chattering to each other in the white willow tree in the nearby farm - and await their random attention to our bird feeders.
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