Song thrush

One of the advantages of knitting birds is that you can give yourself a Disney Princess moment by having a song thrush alight on your hand and obligingly stay there while you take a photo (chances of this happening in real life: 0%. Proof again that knitting your own reality is the way to go).

The song thrush was a common garden visitor during my childhood. I remember finding piles of snail-shell carnage where one of these beauties had used a stone as an anvil to help liberate a tasty mollusc lunch. These days? I haven't seen one for ages. The song thrush is now on the RSPB's Red List, meaning that the species is considered one of the most in need of serious conservation protection.

Blue tits

Another knitted sighting in the garden! The knitted blackbird has competition. Tiny blue tits enjoying peanuts from a bird feeder. Remember, even knitted birds need feeding in cold weather.
 

Blackbird

Knitted blackbird enjoying the autumn sunshine in the park. One of the bonuses of knitting birds is that finally I can take half-decent wildlife photos without having to use one of those massive telephoto lenses or having to worry about the subject flying off.

I'm particularly pleased with how the blackbird turned out - when you're knitting with black you're relying entirely on the shaping to create the sense of the bird and I think I captured the shape and the pose of a blackbird with this one.

(American visitors please note that this is a British blackbird - completely different to your beautiful blackbirds! I will get round to knitting one of the North American blackbirds one day.)

Coot

Here's a little knitted coot, out enjoying the Sussex sunshine. Do you have trouble remembering which bird is a coot and which one is a moorhen? Imagine that the "oo" in coot is two snowballs, and snowballs are white like a coot's beak. Moorhens have red beaks!