Twite

Can be confused withSource

• Common Linnet — Twite is told from female and immature Linnet by its heavier streaking, the buff wash to the plumage, the absence of a cinnamon back, and by its unstreaked throat. In winter the bill is yellow, not grey.
• Common Redpoll — Redpoll has a red forehead, and the male a pink breast besides; Twite has no red on the head at all, but a buff face and, in winter, a yellow bill.

Plumage and variationSource

Summer and winter: In winter the bill is yellow and the underside more buff; the bill darkens gradually towards spring, when it is grey.

VoiceSource

The call is a repeated "djøk-djøk-djøk" and at times a fine, drawn-out "tveeiit". The song is a few quick trills mixed with twittering and crackling notes.

BehaviourSource

Highly sociable, roaming in flocks large and small that lift off the ground together, circle a little and soon settle again. Restless and nervous, forever twittering as it flies. Keeps mostly to the ground and low vegetation, taking seeds from the winter stems of tall herbs. Roosts communally in large flocks, often in towns on ledges, rooftops and trellises, which evidently stand in for the rock faces of its breeding grounds.

When and whereSource

Does not breed in Denmark. The breeding grounds lie in northernmost Britain and in Norway, and beyond that only very sparsely in northern Sweden, Finland and Russia — plus a wholly separate area 2,500 km away, from the Caucasus east through central and eastern Asia. Here it is a passage and winter visitor from the north between October and April, most numerous in north and west Jutland; in some years it arrives in numbers large enough to be called an invasion. How common it is, the sources disagree on — Dansk Trækfugleatlas calls it a common passage and winter visitor, Rørvig Bird Observatory a scarce passage and rare winter visitor — and there is no national count to settle it.

RelativesSource