Bird Number 29 – Serin

I watch a lot of Great Tits, Blue Tits and Starlings in the garden but just very occasionally something a bit special happens. Today I had a new bird in the garden, a Serin.

I’m 99.99% sure that it was a Serin but I have an elements of doubt as it was the first time that I’ve ever seen one. So quite nice that it came all the way to my garden for a visit.

There was only one, which spent around 15 minutes feeding on the ground underneath the bird feeders. Much like a chaffinch but smaller and a little more colourful. Unfortunately as it was a ground feeder I didn’t manage to capture it on the bird feeder camera, therefore I don’t have any photos or film of the actual visitor. The images above are taken from the internet.

Here in Paris we are on the edge of the range of the year round resident population which is located in the West of France. In the rest of Europe the birds generally migrate South for the Winter, only returning for the Summer months. It will be interesting to see if this was a complete one off from a wandering individual or if I get any other sightings.

The Serin is the 29^th different bird species I’ve seen in the garden since ‘my’ records began. The next will therefore be number 30. A nice milestone.