PEOPLE can get up close with some of the country’s less familiar garden birds at a special event at Ashwood Nurseries.

The Kingswinford centre has teamed up once again with Brewood Ringers to host a free bird ringing demonstration on Saturday (November 18).

There will be plenty of opportunities for people of all ages to learn lots of interesting facts about birds and bird ringing, while people are invited to take photos with the animals and there may even be a chance to handle them.

Bird ringing is an important tool that helps assess what is happening to British bird populations and involves the attachment of a small numbered tag to the leg of a wild bird to allow individual identification.

The birds will be caught safely in the Wildlife Meadow at Ashwood Nurseries by trained experts from Brewood Ringers – who were recently featured on BBC news for their work ringing Skylarks.

A great variety of birds were ringed at Ashwood, including redwings, great spotted woodpeckers, sparrowhawks, long-tailed tits, goldcrests, sedge warblers and even a rare leucistic blue-tit.

The event will take place at the rear of The Garden Shop at Ashwood Nurseries from 9am to 11am.