Zoo Stream 24 Jan - mostly finches

I spent about 3 hours at the little stream over the fence from the Zoo this afternoon. Caught 43 birds - all new - and although there were 9 species the catch was dominated by finches, especially juvenile Goldfinch.

Species caught were -
Blackbird - 2

This Blackbird, a juvenile appears to have moulted most of its body feathers in one go

Dunnock - 1
Chaffinch - 8
Greenfinch - 5
Goldfinch - 20 all but 5 were juvs and of the first 12 birds caught 10 were juvenile Goldfinch

Several birds especially adults are in active primary moult.
This Goldfinch has moulted P1 & 2 and still retains the outer 7.

House Sparrow - 1
Silvereye - 4
Fantail - 1
Tui - 1 this Tui probably reduced the catch considerably as he aggressively chased any bird it saw. It manged to avoid the nets until it made a mistake, just before I packed up.