Animal of the Week, January 23, 2019—megacharm

Gonna be a brief one this week, because, well, the numbers speak for themselves. A flock of 5 million bramblings (Fringilla montifringilla) have gathered in a patch of trees with a radius of about 250 m (5 hectares) in Slovenia southern Europe.

These beautiful little finches breed in the taiga forests of northern Eurasia and in winter head south to feed on beech and hornbeam seeds in the forests of more temperate regions (a few birds make it to the UK each winter). Extreme weather in central Europe has covered potential food there in metres of snow forcing all the birds that would normally spread out across the region to head south. Droughts earlier in the year mean that potential winter food is limited to densely forested regions such as Slovenia. The full explanation and amazing pictures of the megacharm is available on Rare Bird Alert.

Bramblings are closely related to chaffinches, to which they bear a passing resemblance. A group of finches is known as a charm—so I'm calling this a megacharm. The origin of the name brambling is uncertain, perhaps related to brambles, or perhaps to brandling (the striped worms that you find in your compost bins). I have never seen a brambling, but would very much like to one day as they are, I hope you agree, quite stunning birds.