Bullfinch in the Plum (gouache style)

The male bullfinch is unmistakable, with a rose-pink breast, black cap, grey back and a short, stubby black bill. The female has the same pattern in muted grey-brown, and both show a bright white rump in flight. Bullfinches are shy and usually seen in pairs, keeping to dense cover, and their call is a soft, low piping that's easy to overlook. Buds and seeds make up most of their diet.

In late winter and early spring bullfinches strip flower buds from fruit trees, plums and pears among them, and they were once treated as an orchard pest for it. If you're growing fruit, netting small trees protects the crop. Prune plums in summer, around June or July, never in winter, since that reduces the risk of silver leaf disease. Bullfinches also eat the seeds of many wild plants, so a wild corner, a dense hedge and some seed heads left standing all suit them.

A male bullfinch perches on a plum branch with white blossom buds. Buds are the bullfinch's spring food, so the bird and the branch belong together here. The moment sits just before the blossom opens, when the male's colour stands out against the white and the year's fruit is still to come.