Animal Diz

16/06/2022

A small robin-like bird, the male is unmistakable in spring with his bright blue throat, bordered below with bands of black, white and chestnut. Its central throat spot can be white or chestnut, depending on which subspecies you are looking at -'white-spotted' or the more numerous 'red-spotted'. They can be quite secretive, flicking into the cover of a bush with a flash of their chestnut tail patches.

16/06/2022

A colourful mix of blue, yellow, white and green makes the blue tit one of our most attractive and most recognisable garden visitors. In winter, family flocks join up with other t**s as they search for food. A garden with four or five blue t**s at a feeder at any one time may be feeding 20 or more.

16/06/2022

The blackcap is a distinctive greyish warbler, the male has a black cap, and the female a chestnut one. Its delightful fluting song has earned it the name 'northern nightingale'. Although primarily a summer visitor birds from Germany and north-east Europe are increasingly spending the winter in the UK.

16/06/2022

12/06/2022

Larger than a pochard, the male has an orange-brown head with a red beak and pale flanks. Females are brown with pale cheeks. In flight they show whitish primaries. They dive, dabble and up-end for their food. There is a large population in Spain and nearer but smaller numbers in France, Netherlands and Germany - and occasional wild birds may come to the UK from the Continent. The UK breeding birds almost certainly all come from escaped birds.

12/06/2022

These handsome diving ducks belong to the sawbill family, so called because of their long, serrated bills, used for catching fish. Their diet of fish such as salmon and trout has brought them into conflict with game fishermen. At home on both fresh- and saltwater, red-breasted mergansers are most commonly seen around the UK's coastline in winter. They are gregarious, forming flocks of several hundred in the autumn.

10/06/2022

The garganey is a scarce and very secretive breeding duck in the UK. It is smaller than a mallard and slightly bigger than a teal. The male is most easily recognised with a broad white stripe over the eye. In flight it shows a pale blue forewing. It feeds by 'dabbling'. Garganeys are listed as a Schedule 1 species.

08/06/2022

As the name suggests, the great white egret is a large, white heron. Great white egrets can look similar to little egrets, but they are much larger - the same size as the familiar grey heron. Other identification features to look out for include black feet (not yellow), yellow beak (in juvenile and non-breeding plumage) and a different fishing technique, more like that of the grey heron.

08/06/2022

The largest UK tit - green and yellow with a striking glossy black head with white cheeks and a distinctive two-syllable song. It is a woodland bird which has readily adapted to man-made habitats to become a familiar garden visitor. It can be quite aggressive at a birdtable, fighting off smaller t**s. In winter it joins with blue t**s and others to form roaming flocks which scour gardens and countryside for food.

06/06/2022

This small grebe has beautiful golden tufts of feathers on its face, contrasting with its black head and neck. Its steep forehead makes its head look 'peaked'. A rare breeding bird, it is also uncommon in winter.

06/06/2022