Breeding birds: 1 – 2 pairs
Wintering birds: 720,000
Family: Thrushes And Allies
The adult male fieldfare has a chestnut mantle, back and scapulars with some feathers having paler edges. The rump and upperstail coverts are grey, the uppertail is dark brown or black, and the flight feathers are black with lighter edges.
The underparts are mostly white but the breast has an orange wash with conspicuous black streaks. The flanks are pale buff with black spots, and the underwing coverts are white.
The head ia slate-grey from the forehead to the nape with fine black streaks. The lores, cheeks, malar and neck patches are black and there is a white supercilium. The chin is white with a pale orange wash and thin black streaks. The bill is yellow with a black tip, the eyes are dark brown surrounded by a feathered white eye-ring, and the legs and feet are dark brown.
The male and female are similar but the female has less streaking on the crown, the orange parts are duller, and the tail is browner. The pattern on the flanks is less distinct and the bill is a duller yellow.
The juvenile fieldfare resembles the adult, but it is more uniform grey on the upperparts and it has buff streaks on the scapulars. On the underparts it has spots or chevrons instead of streaks, and these are darker.
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Fieldfares breed between early April and late August, typically raising two broods in the southern parts of their range but only one further north. They are monogamous for a single season, though extra-pair copulations are likely common.
They nest in loose colonies ranging from 5 to 50 pairs, usually in trees, though rarely with more than two nests in the same tree. They may also nest in gardens, hedgerows, or even on the ground. Nest predation by raptors and corvids is common, and fieldfares fiercely defend their nests with mobbing behaviour or distraction displays.
The female builds the nest which is a bulky, cup-shaped structure made from grass, twigs, leaves, and roots, bound together with mud and lined with fine grass and horsehair.
Fieldfares lay 3–7 smooth, glossy eggs that are pale or bright blue with brown or reddish markings. The female incubates them alone for 10–14 days. Chicks fledge 12–15 days after hatching but continue to depend on their parents for food for another two weeks. They reach sexual maturity at one year old.
Fieldfares feed on insects such as ants, beetles, crickets, and flies, as well as spiders, worms, and snails. They also eat plant matter including berries, seeds, grain, and fruit, particularly windfalls.
Fieldfares begin to arrive in the UK in October and start to leave again in March. although you may still see some as late as May.
Look out for them in the countryside and open fields and beside hedges, particularly hawthorn. In late winter they can be spotted on grass fields and playing fields and when it is very cold or snow covers the ground they will come into gardens.
Fieldfares will dive-bomb predators who try and approach their nest firing poo at them to keep them away.
