Hawfinch is Europe's largest finch, and its least known. Photo: Steve Young (www.birdsonfilm.com)

A study of Hawfinches at Scone Palace, near Perth, has been undertaken, funded by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the Tay Ringing Group. Over the last five years it has been shedding new light on this most elusive and enigmatic of Britain’s wild birds.

The grounds of Scone Palace are rich in Hawfinches, making this a prime site for studying these birds in the wild. During five winters, the study team has managed to trap and ring more than 40 Hawfinches. To their complete surprise, one of them was recovered in Sweden three years after it was ringed, only the second Hawfinch to be found abroad.

Team member Neil Morrison, who is based in the village of Scone, has been working on the project for the last five years. “Hawfinches seem to thrive in the grounds of stately homes, perhaps because of the proliferation of yew trees which provide both food and nesting sites,” he said.

“This is certainly the case at Scone, where we believe there are over 100 Hawfinches regularly over-wintering, and smaller numbers nesting in the spring. One of the reasons we think Scone is so rich in Hawfinches is that the grounds have essentially not changed for decades, meaning that the birds have a undisturbed habitat in which to live and breed”.

For the last three years, the team has also been carrying out a radio-tracking project, trying to fit radio tracking devices to the birds. A tiny finger-nail size tracking device, weighing only 1 gram, is stuck to a tail feather. The device then falls off naturally as the bird moults. Birds can be tracked for up to three quarters of a mile.

To date, two males have been radio-tracked at Scone, along with one female. The tracking has shown that males travel further than originally thought, while the female hardly moved any distance! A further programme of ringing will take place next winter, as well as an attempt to ring breeding birds in the spring.

The Hawfinch is just one of over 50 bird species breeding in the grounds of Scone Palace. As well as woodpeckers, warblers, owls and Siskin, the list also now includes the Nuthatch, one of Scotland’s rarest birds and an exciting new arrival to Perthshire in the last few years.