Goldfinches are one of the winners in our new nature

Today, this is one of our more commonplace birds but no less beautiful for all that.

In Victorian cities, keeping Goldfinches as cage-birds was all the rage and there were ornithological group meetings where birds were ‘shown’.

Another forgotten activity associated with this passion was that the birds required a grassy covering on the floor of the cage and so fine-leaved grass turf was scalped from open hillsides around towns and cities. This amounted to hundreds of thousands of cut turves each year.

As the goldfinch has increased to become a regular to gardens and other habitats, its cousin, the linnet, has continued to plummet.

It seems the linnet has been unable to adapt to changing conditions and as farmland continues to both shrink and what’s left to intensify, this pretty little bird has gone.

I saw one recently with goldfinches around nearby Hazelbarrow Farm, but that was my first sighting for a while.

Another relative, one of the buntings, the yellowhammer, has also declined with little sign of recovery.

Prof Ian D Rotherham is a researcher, writer and broadcaster on wildlife and environmental issues

He is contactable on [email protected] or follow Ian’s Walk on the Wildside blog at ukeconet.org