© David Kilbey/Alamy
Goldcrests, along with other small-bodied birds including wrens, long-tailed tits and coal tits, are feared to have fared badly in the harsh weather before Christmas.
Goldcrests, along with other small-bodied birds including wrens, long-tailed tits and coal tits, are feared to have fared badly in the harsh weather before Christmas.
The deep winter freeze across northern Europe and Russia has driven many exotic and unusual birds into Britain's back gardens on a weekend when more than half a million people are taking part in the world's biggest wildlife survey.
Amateur ornithologists are being told to "expect the unexpected" as they turn out for the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, including spectacular flocks of rarely seen waxwings that have been forced into towns and cities across the UK by a shortage of berries in their native Scandinavia and Russia.
Other unusual visitors to bird tables include fieldfare and redwing thrushes, winter migrants who prefer the countryside but are now seeking food and refuge in residential areas.
Comment: It's difficult to see what the RSPB is getting excited about, given that the organisation warned last week that populations of wild birds in the UK have registered an alarming 24% decline in recent decades.