Chaffinch, Fringilla coelebs

This is one of Britain's most common birds, a permanent resident species with an additional population in winter of migrants from Northern Europe. So it was not surprising to find this one in a London park in the depth of winter. But I was surprised and very pleased to see the bird on the left head for the highest perch on a bare tree and break into mid-afternoon song right in the middle of the Christmas season. The picture below, taken at a nearby spot in the same park a couple of days earlier, shows what may be the same bird, this time perched on a wall in the pale light of an English winter sunrise, after a snowfall the night before.