We had this bird on our feeding station today. We think it is a female linnet.
description. It has a slightly different coloured head to the body, a lighter line round its eye, flash on its wing & tail & bit of a speckled breast. We caught it eating niger seed & it arrived with our resident goldies.
I know the pic is not too good but has anyone else any ideas?

I have attached a new, better picture taken by my husband 'Skippy'

This post was last modified: 20-04-2007 09:38 PM by Xeract.

Hmm, it's very difficult to make out what colours are on the bird in that picture. What colours were its head and lighter line around its eye?

From your description you may well be right with your guess of a female linnet, although I don't think they usually have the speckled breast but I could be wrong. The different colour head and lighter line around the eye sound very much like a linnet though.

Rather than the description speckled .It had darker marks on a buff coloured chest. It was buff around its eyes & its head was hard to tell because of the light.

From the new picture I'm sure it is a female linnet, the spekled chest and lighter colours around the eye give it away.

Thanks very much , we thought it was but then again my pic was a bit rubbish , husbands pic is much better.