Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)

A familiar bird in woodlands, on bird tables, at picnic spots and many other locations. In some places like Kielder water in Northumberland they will even land on your hand. They eat seeds and insects (as well as crumbs from tourists!) building nests of moss and lichen among branches or against a tree trunk. They lay 4 - 5 eggs which hatch in 12 days.

The challenge to the photographer is to take interesting photographs of these common birds. In the pictures here we have used off camera flash to take photographs of the birds in flight as they approach the feeders.