One of Devon's speciality birds is the Cirl Bunting.  This is a  species that is on the northern edge of it's range in the UK. They are dependant on agricultural practises and other factors such as a reluctance to disperse from their breeding sites making it difficult for them to re-establish in to former territories where formally they may have been more common. However, they are not that hard to find in Devon because their presence is very well documented and well recorded. Members of the Devon Bird Watching and Preservation Society take, as you would expect, a great interest in them and put out winter feed in an area that they are known to frequent. This makes finding them, particularly in the winter time, an easy task. I always make at least one trip every winter to one of these places and try to coincide the trip with some good weather conditions.  Yesterday, whilst out with my family, I had a quick look to see if I could find some and was pleased when I saw at least 15 feeding on the seed put down for them. To the uninitiated they resembled a flock of House Sparrows feeding on the ground amongst reed Buntings and Chaffinches. They were happy to feed while I  was there, as long as a reasonable distance was maintained.  It was interesting to see them take to cover  at the slightest hint of danger especially from larger birds, an obvious defence against Sparrowhawks.  I tried very hard not to disturb them and the photos that I took, and show here, are cropped to make sure I was not too close. This is always such a temptation, but definitely not the thing to do. 

This is a male, the female (pictured below) resemble a Reed Bunting. In the breeding season males would be more strongly marked.