Chaffie.

Apologies to those not conversant with my native tongue, this is a male Chaffinch (Fringella coelebs).  He is showing good colour and because I wasn't going anywhere or doing anything interesting (apart from a short meeting at my old school) I settled for yet another bird shot.

Chaffinches are a very common bird with about 6,000,000 territories in the Uk so that is at least double that number of birds.  In winter the population is increased as migrants arrive from Scandinavia.  It is mainly the females which arrive with us in the UK.

Recently a problem has been troubling Chaffinches, or more correctly two problems, both with very similar results.  The infection appears as scaly nwarty growths on the foot ot leg.  These are caused either by a mite (Cnemidocoptes Sp) or the CHaffinch pappilloma virus.