The flight of the fieldfare is slow and direct . It takes several strong beats then closes its wings briefly before flapping on . It is highly gregarious , quite shy and easily scared in the winter and bold and noisy in the breeding season . When a group is in a tree they all tend to face in the same direction , keeping up a constant chatter . When foraging on the ground , often in association with redwings , the group works its way up wind , each bird pausing every so often to stand erect and gaze around before resuming feeding . When alarmed they fly off down wind and the feeding group reforms elsewhere . In woodland they do not skulk in the undergrowth as do blackbirds or song thrushes , instead they perch in the open on bushes and high branches . They roost socially , sometimes in overgrown hedges and shrubberies but usually on the ground . Common sites are in rough grass among bushes or clumps of rushes , in young plantations , on stubble and in the furrows of ploughed fields .