We’ve come to church this morning in search of a fictional bird. On the south side of the graveyard, sunlight paves the lime walk, but offers little warmth for those who choose to linger. It’s not the first time I’ve haunted this churchyard in winter, praying for hawfinches in the yew trees, but so far my only sighting of the UK’s largest finch has been in my Collins Guide to British Birds.
The parish church of St Andrew is blessed with grounds full of mature trees and the old spreading yew by the gate has attracted a small flock of birders. We join them, stamping numb feet, hoping for a miracle in its evergreen interior. Unlike us, the icy chill doesn’t bother a grey wagtail bobbing for grubs in the flooded grass along the path. Greenfinches sweeee and blue tits bounce around the limes above our heads, while the yew holds its secrets close.
Something moves near the top of an ash by the church tower. There, on a leafless branch, sits my first ever hawfinch. A hunk with buff breast, slightly darker crown and a warm cinnamon back with the slate-grey wing patches that tell me it is a female.
She’s eating something – most likely a yew berry. Unaffected by the toxicity, she’ll make light work of the seed inside the red fleshy aril with her specially modified bill, capable of exerting a force in excess of 450N. For a bird with a reputation for being elusive, her Latin name, Coccothraustes coccothraustes (the kernel-crushing kernel crusher), has the all subtlety of a sledgehammer. Looking at her hefty bill and thick-set body, I can’t deny that she is manifestly – and magnificently – real.
Hertfordshire was once a stronghold for these red-listed birds and they feature on the logo of the Herts Bird Club, but they’ve virtually disappeared from the county as a breeding species. I feel lucky that the revelation in the churchyard means I can finally remove hawfinches from my list of fictional birds I wrote three decades ago. It’s been a long wait and the cold has frozen my fingers, but the hawfinch has warmed my heart.
• Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at guardianbookshop.com and get a 15% discount
• This article was amended on 3 February 2025 because an earlier version referred to a hawfinch’s bill being capable of exerting a force in excess of 50kg, rather than referring to the force in newtons.
