Week 65: Black-headed Gull ('Chroicocephalus ridibundus')

The Black-headed Gull was @SpeciesofUK from 16^th to 22^nd June.

Black-headed gulls are a common species of UK gull, found just as often inland as they are on the coast.[1] They are noisy and quarrelsome birds.

Black-headed Gull
[Wikimedia Commons © Arild Vågen]

Week 60: Treecreeper ('Certhia familiaris')

The Treecreeper was @SpeciesofUK from 12^th to 18^th May, 2014.

The treecreeper is a wonderful, active little bird that, as its name suggests, lives in trees. It's notable for its foraging habits and slender curved bill.

Treecreeper
[Flickr Creative Commons © gynti_46]

Week 56: Willow Warbler ('Phylloscopus trochilus')

The Willow Warbler was @SpeciesofUK from 31^st March to 6^th April, 2014.

Willow Warblers are slim, delicate birds of woodland, scrub, parks and gardens.[1]

Willow Warbler
[Flickr Creative Commons © Muchaxo]

They migrate to the UK for the summer from southern Africa.[2] 

Week 53: Sparrowhawk ('Accipiter nisus')

The Sparrowhawk was @SpeciesofUK from 10^th to 16^th March, 2014.

The UK's sparrowhawk is also known the 'northern sparrowhawk' or 'Eurasian sparrowhawk' to distinguish it from other sparrowhawks.[1]

Sparrowhawk
[Flickr Creative Commons © Philippe Garcelon]

It is a small raptor with short rounded wings and long legs.

Week 48: Barnacle Goose ('Branta leucopsis')

The Barnacle Goose was @SpeciesofUK from 27^th January to 2^nd February, 2014.

Barnacle geese are medium-sized geese with a distinctive white face and belly, and black head, neck and breast.[1]

Barnacle Goose
[Wikimedia Commons © Ludovic Péron]

They are Arctic geese that come to the UK for winter and congregate in spectacular fashion. 

Week 44: Snow Bunting ('Plectrophenax nivalis')

The Snow Bunting was @SpeciesofUK from 23^rd December 2013 to 5^th January 2014.

Snow buntings are small birds that breed mainly in the Arctic and migrate south in the winter.[1]

Snow Bunting
[Flickr Creative Commons © foxypar4]

In the UK, we have a large wintering population of snow buntings and we are also lucky enough to have a small summer breeding population, in the Cairngorms of Scotland.[2] Snow buntings have been described as “possibly the most romantic and elusive bird in the British Isles.”[3]

Week 38: Dunlin (‘Calidris alpina’)

The Dunlin was @SpeciesofUK from 14^th to 20^th October, 2013.

Dunlins are waders that form massive winter flocks in the UK. They are known for the black bellies they develop in their distinctive breeding plumage.

Dunlin
[Source: Flickr Creative Commons © talis qualis]

Week 35: Great Tit (‘Parus major’)

The Great Tit was @SpeciesofUK from 16^th to 22^nd September, 2013.

The great tit is a member of the tit family Paridae, which are known in North America as the ‘titmice’ and ‘chickadees.’[1]

Great Tit
[Source: Flickr Creative Commons © Paul Gulliver]

Tits can be found right across the northern hemisphere and Africa.[2] The great tit has one of the widest ranges of all tits. It’s found as far east as China and as far west as Ireland and Morocco.[3]

Week 33: Grey Partridge (‘Perdix perdix’)

The grey partridge was @SpeciesofUK from 1^st to 8^th September, 2013.

The grey partridge the UK’s native partridge. It is medium-sized, plump, with a distinctive orange face.[1]

Grey Partridge
[Source: Flickr Creative Commons © Langham Birder]

It is usually classed as a game bird. 'Game' basically refers to an animal that is hunted for food (or sometimes for sport).[2]

Week 27: Starling (‘Sturnus vulgaris’)

The starling was @SpeciesofUK from 30^th June to 6^th July, 2013.

The UK's starling, Sturnus vulgaris, is also known as the Common Starling or European Starling.[1] It is one of 114 starling species worldwide, all members of the Sturnidae family.[2]

The Common Starling
[Source: Flickr Creative Commons © David A. Hofmann]

Week 24: Lapwing (‘Vanellus vanellus’)

The Lapwing was @SpeciesofUK from 26^th May to 1^st June, 2013.

The lapwing is from the Charadriidae family (plovers/dotterel/lapwings), which contains around 65 species. A lapwing is kind of a large plover.[1]

It is a very familiar bird, often seen in farmland across the UK.[2] In fact, the lapwing is the UK's commonest breeding wader.[3]

The Lapwing
[Source: Wikimedia Commons © Alpsdake]

Aside from in the UK, the lapwing is found across Europe, Asia and North Africa. It's quite a widespread bird.[4] Across the whole of Europe there are somewhere between 1.1 and 1.7 million breeding pairs of lapwing. Globally there are as many as five million.[5]

Week 17: Woodpigeon (Columba palumbus)

The woodpigeon was @SpeciesofUK from 31^st March to 6^th April 2013.

The woodpigeon is a member of the Columbidae family, which contains all 310 species of doves and pigeons.

Woodpigeon
[Wikimedia Commons © Nick Fraser]

The woodpigeon appears right across the UK and according to RSPB data is our seventh most common bird.[1] In fact, it’s such a common sight now that in 2005 it even topped the BTO’s list of the UK’s most commonly seen birds.[2]

Week 11: Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis)

The long-tailed duck was @SpeciesofUK from 10^th to 16^th February 2013.

The long-tailed duck is a sea duck. Other sea ducks found in UK waters include eiders, scoters, goldeneyes and mergansers.

Male Long-tailed Duck
[Source: Rictor Norton & David Allen]

The long-tailed duck is not resident in the UK; it's a winter visitor. It's most common in estuaries and bays in northern Scotland but is also seen as far south as Norfolk.

Week 6: Robin (Erithacus rubecula)

The Robin was @SpeciesofUK from 6^th to 12^th January 2013.

Robins are the UK's third most common bird, coming behind the wren and the chaffinch and ahead of the blackbird and house sparrow.¹

It is many people's favourite bird, and immediately recognisable even to people with little interest in wildlife.

The Robin
[Source: Ramin Nakisa]

Week 1: Common Buzzard (Buteo Buteo)

The Common Buzzard was @SpeciesofUK from 2nd to 8th December 2012.

Common Buzzards are the UK's most widespread and common Bird of Prey.  They breed in every UK county.

Common Buzzard
[Source: Arend from Oosterhout, Netherlands]

Buzzard numbers are up dramatically since the 1960s, from 16,000 in 1966 to 70,000 now.¹ This is linked to rabbits gaining resistance to myxomatosis in the 1950s. They spread out from the hilly woodsides of the north and west of the country to the flatter south and east in the late twentieth century, as this infographic shows.