ID Sparrow with Orange Head

Group Theory Rocks

Hi, I don't know what these birds are but they look very like sparrows with orange on top of their heads down to the beak. The orange is present in both male and female birds. Male and female colouration is, apart from the orange, similar to ordinary sparrows.
Does anybody know what they are? Google didn't help much.

1squidge

Could be pollen on the Sparrows head. Ger.

Itsdacraic

Are you sure it's not a female blackcap?

swifts need our help!

could it be sparrows taking pollen/nectar from Kniphofia/pokers

E39MSport

Redpoll?

Half-cocked

There were some odd coloured redpolls around, captive birds that escaped. We had a 'yellowpoll' in our garden. Could this be something similar?

littlebug

Article by Birdwatch Ireland on new orange headed birds
New Zealand Flax pollen apparently.

Mothman

I have that plant in my garden but I've no Starlings or Sparrows
Maybe that's why I've so many moths

Group Theory Rocks

Thanks for all the replies, I'm pretty sure that the sparrows have been feeding on the invasive plant New Zealand Flax, as suggested in the article linked by littlebug. I think this plant has been around for a while, so I don't know why orange-headed birds seem to be a more recent phenomenon.

thedarkroom

Here's some more with unusual coloured heads, they're some sort of starlings I think. I photographed them in my garden about a week ago.

Kess73

thedarkroom wrote: »

Here's some more with unusual coloured heads, they're some sort of starlings I think. I photographed them in my garden about a week ago.

Adult starlings with some of this season's fledged starlings.

The lighter coloured ones are the young birds.

pops

I've seen starlings in the garden feeding on the nectar in the flowers of the NZ Flax coming out with little yellow caps from the pollen.