Identifying Birds

[JRB]

I live in a fairly rural area in Jersey, between two banks of established trees, and every year about this time quite large flocks of small birds spend hours flying back and forth between them. There are between 50 -100 birds in each flock, depending on the time. After watching them through binoculars and reading my bird books the nearest guess I can make is that these are finches which have migrated south from Scandinavia - evidently local finches do not flock in this manner. Can anyone confirm this or come up with another identification?

[Prudie]

Can you give us some colours? - Goldfinches certainly flock like that in Winter (flash of yellow and red). I don't thnk chaffinches or greenfinches do.
Long-tailed tits also flock in Winter but we need more colours described ;-)

[Milvus]

You might try this site, it will give you details of what is being seen now in Jersey and the location of sightings. It might help narrow down your choices.
http://www.jerseybirds.co.uk/index.shtml
To add to Prudie's suggestion you might take a look at Firecrests. There are some flocks now in Jersey.

[melv16]

Could be redpolls.

[Chipchopper]

I assume that the birds are mostly silhouetted against the sky.
Sometimes, the tree species can give a clue, I have some alder and birch near me and I often see feeding parties of siskins moving through them.

[bunkmoreland]

Could be Fieldfares? They are winter visitors in the fields around us,and are always in large flocks.

[Sam1960]

This is a great site.

http://www.uksafari.com/