Head Count

Sunday is the start of the BTO Garden Birdwatch Week and in the last minute of today's count, this Lesser Redpoll arrived for a snack. 
Interesting link to poll meaning vote.
The word 'poll' is of Germanic origin, and first occurs in English in the 13th century, when it meant 'a head'. Before the days of mass literacy and secret ballots, elections were usually carried out by counting the voters' heads, and so by the 17th century the meaning of 'polls' was extended from 'heads' to 'votes'.