Where to Watch Birds in Winter in Finland

During winter time, forests in Finland are usually quite empty with birds... it is the silence that dominates the forest's sounds. Despite this, you can still do some birdwatching; lots of people feed birds in their gardens! The variety of species is not very high, but every now and then some nice species can turn up. Tits (Great, Blue, Willow and Coal Tit) are usually found, followed by Yellowhammers, Tree Sparrows, Waxwings, Bullfinches,Fieldfare, the less usual Blackbirds and also regularly Redpolls. In a feeding place south of Joensuu there have been observations White-backed Woodpecker, Eurasian Nuthatch spp. asiatica and also good numbers of Hawfinches; a rare visitor in Karelia.

Last week sunday (Feb 1st) I went to the feeding place to see if I could take some photos and see some nice species; I felt like doing some birdwatching because it had been a while!

I spent some 1,5 hours there, enjoying myself with the Waxwings and other birds, but I hadn't seen my target species yet. Then after long waiting both White-backed Woodpecker and Nuthatch showed up simultaneously! I was able to take some good pics of both species, very exciting!

Below some of the results:

 The White-backed Woodpecker (Dendrocopos leucotos), male

 Eurasian Nuthatch (Sitta europaea asiatica),

 Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes), male

 Waxwings (Bombycilla garrulus)

Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella)

Mealy Redpoll (Acanthis flammea), adult male