Birds of Britain

Very similar to the Golden Plover in general appearance, but the yellow spots are replaced by whitish, and the hind toe is lacking. A few weeks in spring and autumn along the sh...

A solitary example of this species was shot on the 16th September 1906 at Tresco in the Scilly Islands. It is an American species and is not unlike a very large Redshank, but th...

The adult male is slate grey with white rump and white under parts, the throat and breast being bluish grey. The female and young are brown above with the exception of the rump,...

Except that it commits depredations in the cherry orchards as the fruit ripens, nothing but good can be said of the Starling. Tame, confiding, no mean songster, and an excellent...

Mere cold does not seem to affect him in the least, but when the streams are frozen he suffers greatly from hunger, and after a day or two of frosty weather he reluctantly leave...

The Pochard is chiefly a winter visitor to our shores, occurring not uncommonly in most seasons, but being in some years much more numerous than in others. It chiefly frequents...

It may be recognised by its short bill and smaller size, and from its having only twelve instead of fourteen tail feathers. Length 7·5 in.; bill 1·5 in.; wing 4·25 in.

Though nearly allied to the Goldfinch, this bird is very different in appearance, being much smaller and of a yellowish green with black markings. Scotland is its chief home, wh...

It is an expert swimmer and diver, and though it flies well and swiftly with rapid beats of its small wings, it rarely avails itself of that means of progression. It feeds entir...

The name of this bird is familiar to every one--ornithologist or otherwise. Poets have sung his praises for centuries, and not in vain, for there are few who do not in consequen...

The Rock Dove is the original species from which most of our domestic varieties have been derived. It is only on the wildest and most inaccessible parts of our coast that this s...

Formerly breeding in small numbers in the Orkneys, this species now only visits us during the winter, its numbers depending largely on the severity of the climate in Northern Eu...

Before the March winds have subsided, and while the trees and all vegetation are still in their winter sleep, the first of the Wheatears appears in the south-west of England. A...

The adult has the head and neck brownish, rest of the upper parts dark slate grey. Chin, throat and upper breast white, lower breast chestnut, passing into black on the flanks a...

This species is scarcer and more local than the Willow Wren. In Scotland it is local and is only a straggler to the north of that country and the surrounding islands.

The adult has the back dark brown, with broad olive brown margins to the feathers; cheeks, neck, and breast lead grey; vent buff; flanks black, barred with white. Bill red. Leng...

If we did not know the habits of our friend, the first signs of his presence in the garden would be when he flies up to feed his mate with some special titbit, and then as he ju...

The young have the head white, streaked with blackish brown, mantle grey with buffish tips, under parts white. In their first autumn plumage they are very similar to the young o...

Single examples of this species have from time to time visited the southern and eastern counties of England during migration, and possibly they may have nested on one or two occ...

With the advent of spring they have in their turn to seek a permanent home; perhaps they will meet with an older bird who has lost his mate during the winter and has a home read...

Hatched in a neat nest of bents and dry grass lined with finer materials and placed on the ground in the middle of an open field, the youthful Lark has early to contend with ene...

Better known probably as a cage-bird than as a wild inhabitant of our woods and gardens, the Bullfinch is nevertheless by no means rare. It inhabits woods, coppices, and thick h...

From the middle to the end of October, when the leaves are falling thickly from the trees, and the dull, dark days of winter are beginning to make themselves felt, we may be awa...

Produced by Donald Cummings, Adrian Mastronardi, Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images genero...

This species very closely resembles Leach's Petrel, but the tail is hardly forked; the upper tail coverts are white tipped with black; and the bases of the tail feathers are whi...