Bird Factfile

Bird 1 of 9

Robin

👀: Looks like: a bright orange-red face and chest, with a brown back. Males and females look the same. Young robins have no red at all, just golden-brown speckles.
🐛: Eats: worms, grubs and insects. Robins often follow gardeners, hoping to grab a worm from freshly dug soil.
🪺: Nests: almost anywhere! A mother robin lays about four or five eggs, and can raise two or three families each spring and summer.
🎵: Listen for: a sweet, high whistling song in short bursts. Robins sing almost all year round, and sometimes even at night!

Wow! Robins have built nests in plant pots, under car bonnets and even inside a plane engine.

Find out more about robins at the RSPB →

Bird 2 of 9

Blackbird

👀: Looks like: males are all black, with a yellow beak and a yellow ring around each eye. Females are brown, with spots and streaks on their chest.
🐛: Eats: worms, insects, berries and fruit. Watch them hopping across the grass and flicking over leaves to find food.
🪺: Nests: the female weaves a cup-shaped nest of twigs and grass, stuck together with mud, and lays three or four eggs. She builds a brand-new nest for each family.
🎵: Listen for: a mellow, tuneful song, loudest from March to June. When worried, they make a loud, rattling "chuk-chuk-chuk".

Wow! Over 5 million pairs of blackbirds nest in the UK, and even more fly over from Europe each autumn.

Find out more about blackbirds at the RSPB →

Bird 3 of 9

Magpie

👀: Looks like: black and white, with a very long tail. Look closely in the sunshine and you will see a shiny purple-blue on its wings and a green gloss on its tail.
🐛: Eats: almost anything! Insects, seeds, berries and scraps. Magpies are clever scavengers.
🪺: Nests: high in trees and tall hedges, in a big nest of sticks with a twiggy roof on top to keep it safe.
🎵: Listen for: a loud, noisy chattering, a bit like a football rattle.

Wow! Magpies belong to the crow family, one of the cleverest groups of birds in the world.

Find out more about magpies at the RSPB →

Bird 4 of 9

Blue tit

👀: Looks like: a tiny, colourful bird, just 12cm long, with a blue-green cap and wings, a white face with a black stripe through the eye, and a yellow chest.
🐛: Eats: nuts, seeds and tiny insects. Its short, thin beak is perfect for nibbling, and it loves a garden bird feeder.
🪺: Nests: in holes in trees, or in a nest box. The female builds the nest and can lay up to 16 eggs, one of the biggest families of any bird!
🎵: Listen for: a high "tsee-tsee-tsee", and an angry, rattling "churr" when it is alarmed.

Wow! Years ago, when milk was left on doorsteps, blue tits learned to peck through the bottle tops and steal the cream!

Find out more about blue tits at the RSPB →

Bird 5 of 9

House sparrow

👀: Looks like: males have a chestnut-brown back with black markings, a grey cap and a black bib under the beak. Females are plainer brown, with a pale stripe behind each eye.
🐛: Eats: seeds, grain and scraps. Sparrows have lived alongside people for centuries, and love sunflower hearts and fat balls on bird feeders.
🪺: Nests: in holes and gaps in buildings, in thick hedges or in nest boxes, often close to other sparrows.
🎵: Listen for: a loud, busy "cheep cheep", repeated over and over.
💚: They need our help: since 1970, almost 30 million house sparrows have disappeared from the UK. A nest box or a thick, bushy hedge can give them a safe home.

Wow! Even so, the house sparrow has been the most spotted bird in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch for 21 years in a row.

Find out more about house sparrows at the RSPB →

Bird 6 of 9

Starling

👀: Looks like: smaller than a blackbird, with a short tail and pointed wings. From far away it looks black, but up close its feathers shine purple and green. In winter it is covered in bright white spots, and its beak changes from dark in winter to yellow in summer.
🐛: Eats: insects, grubs and worms, often found by probing the grass with its beak, plus berries and fruit.
🪺: Nests: in holes in trees and in gaps under roofs and in walls.
🎵: Listen for: a jumble of whistles, clicks and chatters. Starlings are brilliant copycats and can mimic lots of other sounds.
💚: They need our help: starling numbers fell by 57% between 1995 and 2023, and they are now on the Red List of birds at risk.

Wow! On winter evenings, thousands of starlings swoop and swirl together in amazing shapes called murmurations. They react so quickly that each bird can copy the flight of the birds around it.

Find out more about starlings at the RSPB →

Bird 7 of 9

Woodpigeon

👀: Looks like: the UK's biggest and most common pigeon. It is mostly grey, with a pink chest, a white patch on each side of its neck and thick white stripes across its wings when it flies.
🐛: Eats: seeds, grain, leaves, buds and berries, often pecking about on lawns and in parks.
🪺: Nests: in trees and hedges, on a simple, flat platform of twigs.
🎵: Listen for: a soft, gentle cooing, and a loud clatter of wings when it flies away.

Wow! About 5.2 million pairs of woodpigeons live in the UK. In autumn, huge flocks of thousands fly overhead, and nobody knows for sure where they are going!

Find out more about woodpigeons at the RSPB →

Bird 8 of 9

Crow

👀: Looks like: a big, heavy bird with glossy black feathers and a large, strong black beak. Young and old crows look the same.
🐛: Eats: almost anything: seeds, fruit, eggs, scraps from the street and even the remains of dead animals, which is how the carrion crow got its name.
🪺: Nests: a big nest of sticks, high up in trees, on buildings or even on electricity pylons.
🎵: Listen for: a loud, harsh "caw caw caw".

Wow! Crows are amazing problem-solvers. In Japan, crows drop nuts onto the road for cars to crack open, then wait for the traffic lights to turn red before hopping out to collect them!

Find out more about crows at the RSPB →

Bird 9 of 9

Goldfinch

👀: Looks like: a bright red face, a black and white head, and black wings with a flash of yellow. Young goldfinches are streaky brown, with no red face yet.
🐛: Eats: tiny seeds. Its fine, pointed beak can reach seeds hidden deep inside thistles and teasels, and it is visiting garden feeders more and more.
🪺: Nests: a neat little cup nest in trees and bushes, often near other goldfinches.
🎵: Listen for: a cheerful, tinkling twitter.

Wow! A group of goldfinches is called a "charm". In winter, many of our goldfinches fly all the way to Spain!

Find out more about goldfinches at the RSPB →

Our facts are based on information from the RSPB website. Illustrations by Changing Leaf.