Male Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla)

Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)

Tufted Ducks (Aythya Fuligula)

A variety not found anywhere else but the Nethan-Valley and rarely seen. This specimen must be avoided at all cost as it has a mean streak.

Overview

Brambling: Medium-sized finch with jet-black hood extending to upper back with orange shoulder patches, throat, and breast. Underparts are buff with black-spotted flanks. Wings are black with white and orange bars. Bounding flight, rapid wing beats alternating with wings at sides.

Range and Habitat

Brambling: A Eurasian species, common but irregular as a migrant in the Bering Sea region, including the Aleutians; casual in fall and winter in southern Alaska; accidental south to Canada and northwestern U.S. states. Preferred habitats include northern forests with birch trees during breeding season; prefers agricultural fields, woodlands (especially beech), parks, and gardens during winter.

Voice Text

"dzhweeeee"

The great spotted has a varied diet changing with the seasons. During spring and summer it feeds largely on insects, especially ants and the larvae of wood-boring beetles. Holes may be chiselled up to four inches deep. But in autumn and winter the birds switch to a variety of fruits, seeds and nuts.

Their call is a loud, far-carrying laugh or "yaffle".

Males are unmistakeable with a bright yellow head and underparts, brown back streaked with black, and chestnut rump. In flight it shows white outer tail feathers. Often seen perched on top of a hedge or bush, singing. Its recent population decline make it a Red List species.

Confusion with the Siskin (a finch) should be unlikely as the Yellowhammer is considerably bigger, a little larger than a Chaffinch.

The Yellowhammer often sings from the top of a tree or fence post, and its high-pitched song is the well-known "little bit of bread and no cheese".

The Coal Tit is a small tit, in fact the smallest European tit, and could be confused with the almost indistinguishable Marsh Tit and Willow Tit if it was not for the white patch on the nape. While it behaves like a Blue Tit, there is no blue in its plumage.

The upperparts are a olive-grey, the underparts buff coloured. The crown and large bib are black, while the cheeks and nape are white. There are also two white wing bars on each wing - this feature separates it from the Marsh and Willow Tits if the nape is not visible. The legs are blue-grey.

Juveniles are browner above, and the underparts, cheeks, nape and wing bars are more yellow.

The high pitch song of the Coal Tit, a repetitive "pee-chew", is similar to that of the Great Tits but faster.

The glossy black plumage and the orange-yellow bill and eye ring of the mature male Blackbird makes it easily recognisable.

The Blackbird sings from a perch and its song is rich, varied and flute-like, but usually finishes in a squeaky phrase. Their calls are loud and varied. The warning call is given with flicking wings and tail and sounds a little like "chook", and the alarm call is a loud rattle.

During the winter, Blackbirds can often be heard quietly "singing to themselves" within undergrowth, this is called sub-song. Later, in the spring and summer, the male Blackbird sings from a prominent song post. After July, when the breeding season is over, the male Blackbird will stop singing and will not be heard properly again until February.

The mature female has dark-brown upper parts and underparts, and yellow-brown bill. The underparts are speckled and she usually has a pale throat (but not to be confused with the white-throated Ring Ouzel).

The Long-tailed Tit is an adorable, small, fluffy pinkish bird.

The shoulders and underparts are pinkish. The head has a white crown with black marks above the eyes and into the nape. They have red eye rings and a very small black bill. The black and white tail is very long, over half the length of the bird and the longest tail of any British bird in proportion to its body. The legs are black-brown.

Juveniles lack pink and have grey-black cheeks.

Long-tailed tits are not really members of the Tit family but of the Aegithalidae family.

Long-tailed tits have a twittering, trilling song, but it is their high-pitched twittering contact calls will usually get them noticed; typically "tsee-tsee-tsee" but also "tsirrup".

The House Sparrow is a familiar bird that has declined sharply and even disappeared from some parts of Britain.

The male House Sparrow has a chestnut brown back with black streaks, while the underparts, rump and crown are grey. The nape is chestnut brown, the cheeks are dull white, and they have a black eye stripe and bib. They also have a light wing bar. The beak is a yellow-brown in winter, but black in the summer, and the legs are pale brown.

The female is paler and lacks the grey crown, white cheeks, black bib and eye stripe and chestnut brown nape, but has a straw coloured stripe behind the eye.

Juveniles are like the adult female.

The size of the bib indicates the dominance of the male bird within its community; the bigger the bib, the more dominant the bird.

The male House Sparrow is sometimes confused for a Tree Sparrow.

The song is simply an incessant collection of their calls, which comprise various cheeps and chirps.

The National Bird and a common favourite, the Robin is easily recognised by most people.

The Robin is a plump bird with bright orange-red breast, face, throat and cheeks edged with grey, a white belly and olive-brown upper parts.

The sexes are very similar, if not identical, though some texts suggest that the brown forehead is "V" shaped in females, and "U" shaped in males, though even this is not always apparent. They have a brown bill and legs.

At other times they can usually be heard singing their melodious warbling song from strategic perches, often quite high up; it sounds like "twiddle-oo, twiddle-eedee, twiddle-oo twiddle". In the winter, it can sound wistful, some say mournful, but around Christmastime the song becomes stronger and more passionate.

They will sing all through the night, particularly near to street lights, and this often leads to them being incorrectly identified as a Nightingale.

The alarm call is a loud ticking call.

Both Sexes

White with silver-grey upperparts. In the summer, chocolate-brown head. The Black-headed Gull is a medium-sized gull and our commonest inland gull.

The range of plumages that they have depends on their age and time of year, as it does for most gulls, and so they are not the easiest birds to identify. All year round the adult Black-headed Gull has silver grey upperparts and white underparts, and dark red bill and legs. The wings have black wing-tips and a white edge along the forewing (which separates it from the Common Gull).

In the summer, the adult has a dark chocolate brown head (but not nape and neck), but in the winter it has only a small black smudge to the rear of each eye.

The Carrion Crow is a black crow, about the same size as a Rook, but unlike the Rook, the Carrion Crow has neatly feathered thighs, and feathers around the base of the beak. While at first appearance its plumage is black, on closer inspection it has a green and purple iridescence.

In flight, the Carrion Crow has a shorter head than the Rook, as well as having slower wing beats. The tail is squarer in the Carrion Crow, and the "fingers" at the wing tips are less splayed.

The Hooded Crow is the same species as the Carrion Crow but is a different race, which can be mostly found in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, though some wintering continental birds may be seen in eastern England. The Hooded Crow has a grey back and underparts and a black hood, wings and tail.

At first glance the acrobatic and cheeky Blue Tit is a blue and yellow bird.

A closer inspection reveals bright blue wings, tail and crown, yellow underparts, greenish back and mantle, white cheeks, and black eye stripe, bib and collar. They also have a black streak down the middle of the belly, and a white wing bar (across the coverts). The bill is black and the legs are a blue-grey.

The sexes are similar, though the female is slightly paler.

The juvenile birds are duller than the adults and have greener crown, wings and tail, and yellow cheeks.

The Blue Tit's song is "tsee-tsee-tsu-hu-hu-hu-hu" and can be heard all year round. The alarm call is a churring sound.

Like bramblings, siskins tend to winter in widely different areas in succeeding years. One winter's birds caught and ringed here were retrapped in later winters in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain and Austria. To survive they need to seek different localities each year wherever seed crops are good. The Siskin, particularly the female, is often confused with the Greenfinch, but the latter is bigger and lacks the dark streaks.

The sweet twittering of a flock of Siskins feeding among the trees is a pleasant sight and sound in the winter.

The mallard is a large and heavy looking duck. It has a long body and a long and broad bill. The male has a dark green head, a yellow bill, is mainly purple-brown on the breast and grey on the body. The female is mainly brown with an orange bill. It breeds in all parts of the UK in summer and winter, wherever there are suitable wetland habitats, although it is scarcer in upland areas. Mallards in the UK may be resident breeders or migrants – many of the birds that breed in Iceland and northern Europe spend the winter here. Most people welcome ducks nesting in their garden. You can encourage them with nesting baskets or boxes.

The female should be able to find food for herself while she incubates, but you could put out a bowl of drinking water, together with duck pellets and cooked potatoes for her to eat. Put these in an accessible area some distance from the nest.

Mallards and the law

Mallards and their nests are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

AKA: Black-billed magpie (N America)

Magpies seem to be jacks of all trades – scavengers, predators and pest-destroyers, their challenging, almost arrogant attitude has won them few friends. With its noisy chattering, black-and-white plumage and long tail, there is nothing else quite like the magpie in the UK. When seen close-up its black plumage takes on an altogether more colourful hue with a purplish-blue iridescent sheen to the wing feathers, and a green gloss to the tail. Non-breeding birds will gather together in flocks.

The male Chaffinch has a pink breast and cheeks, blue-grey crown and nape, and chestnut brown back. In summer, its bill is grey-blue, turning to pale brown. The Chaffinch is well known for its "rain" call which is a repetitive short trill, and a loud "pink pink" call.

The song can be remembered by the phrase: "chip chip chip chooee chooee cheeoo".

The Great Tit is the largest European tit - about the size of a House Sparrow.

The crown, nape and throat are black. The cheeks are white. The breast and belly are yellow with a black stripe down the centre. There is a white wing bar across the blue-grey wings. The back is a yellowish-green and the rump is blue-grey. Legs are grey-blue and the bill is black.

The sexes can be told apart by the width of the black stripe down the breast - the males have a broader stripe than the females.

Juveniles are paler and duller with yellowish cheeks and wing bar.

The Great Tits' song is varied, but it's perhaps best known for for its piercing "teacher-teacher" song, which sounds very much like a bicycle pump, and is usually heard in the spring and summer.

A common call is a repeated "chink", which can be confused with the "pink pink" call of the Chaffinch.

The Collared Dove is small, slim dove with quite a long tail - it is much smaller than a Wood Pigeon.

The plumage of this elegant dove is mostly a pale brown-grey but the breast is a pinkish buff colour. Adults can be distinguished from juveniles by the narrow black and white band round the back of the neck (which juveniles lack).

In flight, the length of its tail in proportion to its body can make its silhouette look like that of a Sparrowhawk, and sometimes other birds make the same mistake, giving alarm calls and dashing for cover.

The monotonous, loud cooing song of the Collared Dove sounds like "coo-Coo-coo", but is perhaps best remembered as either "u-nit-ed" or "I don't know".

The call is a harsh "kwurr".

The Nuthatch has a long pointed bill and short tail and, unlike woodpeckers and the Treecreeper, it climbs up, down and around the tree trunk and branches using its powerful toes.

The upperparts, wings, crown and nape are blue-grey and the underparts are orange-buff, changing red-brown on the flanks and towards the vent. Beneath the black eye stripe, which gives it a bandit-like appearance, is white. The bill is grey and the legs yellowish-brown.

Nuthatches have a wide range of calls. The commonest is a loud ringing "chit chit chit-chit".

The song is a loud, rapid series of piping notes.

The Pied Wagtail is a small black and white (pied) bird with a long tail that is sometimes mistaken to be a young Magpie, but is is much smaller than a Magpie; in fact, it is only a little bigger than a Great Tit. The most distinctive feature is its wagging tail - it never stops!

The differences in the plumage of males and females and at different times of the year are quite complicated:

In flight, the Pied Wagtail utters a high-pitched "chissick" sound.

They sing their twittering song from a perch or in the air.

The only Pochard with a long occipital crest is the Tufted Duck. From a distance the nuptial plumage of the male appears to be strikingly black and white in colour. Although the flanks are brilliant white most of the other feathers are purple and dark green.

The Tufted duck is very popular in captivity. The black and white plumage, the long crest and the bright yellow eyes of the male make him a handsome and striking bird. Being quiet and peaceful there are few other diving ducks more suitable for ornamental waters. They make a "currah" sound as well as a soft note.

The Rook is about the same size as the Carrion Crow but is more untidy in its appearance. The plumage is all black with a reddish or purplish gloss but around the base of its beak - nostrils and chin - is bare skin. The untidy appearance arises from the slightly peaked head and the thigh feathers, which look like baggy trousers. The bill and legs are black. The Rook's bill is longer and more pointed than that of the Carrion Crow. It is often said that if you see a flock of crows that they will be Rooks. This is not strictly true because Carrion Crows do form flocks, but what is true is that Rooks nest in close-knit colonies but Carrion Crows do not. Rooks are rarely alone and so their raucous caws can become overwhelming.