What they like

Berry buffet and open countryside. Think: grassland, orchard, park with lawn, stubble fields, and in winter gardens with berry bushes. Plant rowan, hawthorn, blackthorn, dog rose, elder and sea buckthorn. Leave fallen apples and pears where they drop. Leave a rough corner with leaves and debris: they like to rummage there.

Ecological role

Fieldfares clean up berries and disperse the seeds across the landscape. In the breeding season they also eat earthworms and insects: an extra tidy-up service. They themselves are prey for goshawk and sparrowhawk, so they feed the higher levels too.

When in the Netherlands

Mainly from October through March. In mild winters many remain. They breed here only very locally, mostly in the north and east.

Status

Winter visitor and passage migrant. Not threatened as a species, but dependent on berry-rich, varied places.