The rare Waxwing bird has been spotted in London’s East End, according to local authority biodiversity officers.
These spectacular pink birds with upright crests have been arriving across the North Sea from Scandinavia and have been seen as far south as the Thames.
They hunt for berries and have been sighted in Mile End Park and Wapping.
The unusually high numbers of Waxwings, which are the same size as Starlings, are arriving in their thousands to escape a failure of the berry crop in Norway and Denmark.
But the berry crop hasn’t been very good in Britain either, according to Tower Hamlets biodiversity officers, so the large flocks have now mostly split up.
Groups of up to 40 are being seen in parks in east London and elsewhere. A flock of 10 was reported in Mile End Park and two were spotted by the canal in Wapping earlier this month.
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