Bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhula

The Bullfinch, Pyrrhula pyrrhula, is a plump and strikingly handsome finch belonging to the family Fringillidae, and one of Britain’s most distinctive woodland birds. Males are unmistakable – jet black cap, wings, and tail contrasting with vivid rose-pink underparts and a clean white rump conspicuous in flight – while females share the same bold patterning in more subdued pinkish-buff tones. A specialist feeder on buds, seeds, and berries, it has a particular fondness for fruit tree buds, historically making it unpopular with orchardists. The Bullfinch is a bird of woodland edges, scrub, hedgerows, and gardens, generally unobtrusive despite its striking colouration. The species declined significantly through the latter twentieth century, largely as a result of agricultural intensification reducing seed-rich habitats, and remains an Amber List species of conservation concern in Britain. Image: © Neil Rolph, Flickr.

Find out more: RSPB, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, iNaturalist