Have you seen a waxwing?

SCIENTISTS are appealing for public help in tracking down one of Britain’s most beautiful winter visitors – the multi-coloured and easily identifiable waxwing immigrant from Scandinavia and points north.

Volunteers working for the British Trust of Ornithology (BTO) have counted more than 1,000 of these lovely birds, with their distinctive crests and multicoloured flashes on their wings, crossing the eastern coastlines in Northern England and Scotland after their tiring flight across the North Sea. But the question BTO scientists want answered is: where will they go now as they move inland looking for winter quarters.

They are asking amateur bird watchers to report any sighting so that they can input this information into their 2007-11 bird atlas, which already has the most extensive data base of bird locations of any country in the world.

Waxwings love berries and can been seen in numerous locations: private gardens, parks, open countryside and even supermarket car parks which have decorative shrubs in their borders.

• If you have seen a Waxwing since 1 November then Bird Atlas 2007-11 wants to hear about it. You can enter your records online at www.birdatlas.net (register and follow links to Roving Records) or by requesting a form from BTO.