Yellowhammers in the garden

 The recent freezing weather brought yellowhammers into the garden. Tree sparrows dominate the pecking order on the bird seed feeders but they are messy eaters and the yellowhammers loiter on the ground underneath, feeding on fallen seeds. 

In late winter the birds haven't developed the full sulphur-yellow breeding plumage but as spring progresses their colour intensifies. We have quite a healthy population of yellowhammers locally, much of it on land that was opencast for coal until about twenty years ago then restored to agriculture, with a mixture of new and old hedges and some broad verges along old lanes that provide some good feeding opportunities. All the photographs below have been taken during the last three years and show the birds singing their 'little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese' song, collecting nest material and, in the last two, performing a courtship display. 

I've only witnessed the courtship display once. The cock bird danced around on the ground with its wings drooping and vibrating, with its head feathers raised in a crest.