France in Focus

This morning I heard a right old racket outside. A flock of small birds came along the side of the house, stopped in a large bush for a few moments then off again. Very chatty.
Smaller than a robin ( one was watching all this) with a creamy yellow cravat and a beak like a robin. Couldn’t get a photo.
No idea what they were but they were heading North.
Any ideas please?

Try using the Merlin bird app

https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/ (Cornell University is where it comes from)

It is extremely good at identifying birds from a description.

You can downlaod it to your phone and use it to identify birds by their song when out & about.

I've been using it for a couple of years & love it.

PS It's free!

I use that and when I stayed in Porth Madog recently it was brilliant at both sea and land bird

Biggles suggests they may have been Long-Tailed tits, which tend to be in small flocks and chatter a lot.
More info:
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org

He also highly recommends the Merlin App from Cornell University

Veem wrote: ↑Sat Oct 11, 2025 1:38 pm Biggles suggests they may have been Long-Tailed tits, which tend to be in small flocks and chatter a lot.
More info:
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org

He also highly recommends the Merlin App from Cornell University

definitely not long tts. I have a band of those in the garden all the time. These were definitely ‘on the move’

Interesting!

Starlings?

Wood warbler? They are apparently doing really well in France now

Eurasian siskin? Overwinter in France.

I like the Wood Warbler suggestion. They could have been migrating to Africa for the winter. Maybe they were taking a short diversion by heading North for a while.

I am tending towards the Wood Warbler. I haven’t put my sound bite into the app yet. Maybe today. Thankyou all for your input. I’m wondering if this late extended warm spell has confused them a bit and they’re heading in the wrong direction!