Since your title is “Birdwatch,” I’ll add this question: What is it that makes birds uglier the closer they are to cities? Doves are sweet, but pigeons are pests. Crows flying over a wheat field are beautiful, but crows eating trash in the street are ugly. When we lived in a small city outside of Boston, the birds that visited our feeder were pigeons, crows, common sparrows, and starlings. The lovely, bright-colored birds did not find the urban landscape hospitable, it seems. Is it different in Europe?