UK Garden Bird Identification Guide

Page Index

This UK garden bird identification guide will help you find out which UK garden birds are visiting your garden. All you need is a window to get comfortable by, and something to sit on. We all deserve some time out. Time to find our inner Zen. Watching the birds feeding with a cuppa is relaxing.

Future Garden RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch Bird Spotting Chart download

To keep things simple, we’ve grouped these UK garden birds by size and colour to help you quickly find the birds you’re looking at. Think of this the next time you’re struggling to identify the birds you see.

Bird Feeders & Fresh Feed For More UK Garden Birds

Keeping a fresh supply of feed and water on offer works to attract more UK garden bird varieties and an array of seasonal visitors. Once you start, it’s important to keep it topped up, as your hungry visitors come to rely on your offerings.

If you need any bird feeders or bird feed, don’t worry – we’ve got you covered. We’ve got something to suit every single garden and situation.

Feeding UK Garden Birds, and your wider local wildlife, is important all year round. It’s especially important during the colder months of winter, as access to their natural foods diminishes.

Have you had a sneaky peek at our Bird Care range yet?

Future Garden Bird ID Blog - Coa Tit

Take 20 Minutes for a Quiet Cuppa

This guide to UK garden birds is a great resource for kids. Use it for a quiet 20 minutes, to take a well-deserved cup of coffee, while the kids are keeping an eye on the bird feeder. This Bird identification guide is here – whenever you need it.

UK Garden Bird Varieties Plus Seasonal Visitors

Right then, let’s get started by scrolling down and beginning to learn a little more about some common UK Garden Birds that visit our gardens and outside spaces.

Why not use our bird spotting guide as a handy resource when the RSPB Big Garden Watch begins. Recoding garden birds and numbers is a great way of spending some time away for some mindfulness, away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

Small Brown Garden Birds, UK

Dunnock

The first of our UK Garden Birds is the Dunnock. It’s known as a ‘hedge sparrow’ because it likes hedges, but it isn’t really a sparrow!

Distinguishing features: Thin beak, orange legs, pale brown mottled belly.

UK Garden Bird identifier guide: Dunnock

Chaffinch

Chaffinch populations double in winter. This is because more birds arrive here to overwinter from other European countries.

Distinguishing features : Pinkish-brown breast, bluish cap and striped wings.

UK Garden Birds identifier guide: Chaffinch

House Sparrow

House Sparrows have a thick bill, which is perfect dealing with large seeds and tough husks. As you’d expect from the name suggests, this UK garden favourite can be found around houses.

Distinguishing features: Chestnut brown with black flecks, large dark beak.

UK Garden Birds identifier guide: Sparrow

Wren

Even though the Wren is small in stature, it still let’s you know it’s there with a very loud song. You’ll struggle not to listen to its trilling song.

Distinguishing features: Small, brown bird with a sticky-up tail.

UK Garden Bird identifier guide: Wren

Red Featured UK Garden Birds (Small)

Goldfinch

Goldfinches are one of the more colourful birds that visit UK gardens. You’ll be glad to see one if you get them. The collective name is very apt: a ‘charm’ – which is perfect for these very charming, colourful little birds.

Distinguishing features: Prominent red face with flashes of black and yellow feathers.

UK Garden Bird identifier guide: Goldfinch

Orange Featured UK Garden Birds (Small)

Bullfinch

British Bullfinches are lazy. If you get one in your garden it’s very likely to live close by and highly unlikely to move very far away. This garden bird adds a flash of colour as it visits our feeders. During their life it’s been found that A Bullfinch will rarely move more than a few kilometres.

Distinguishing features: Males have a striking coral breast, while females are peachy/orange.

UK Garden Bird identifier guide: Bullfinch

Robin

As probably the most commonly known British bird, The Robin’s red breast is a badge of status. Commonly representing everything Christmas, they’re found on Christmas cards and winter scenes everywhere. Interestingly: young Robins don’t get their red colouring until they gain adult plumage.

Distinguishing features: Red breast, brown back, lover of mealworms.

UK Garden Bird identifier guide: Robin

Green/Blue Featured UK Garden Birds (Small)

Siskin

Siskins are one of the more elusive UK garden visitors, only
appearing in 18% of gardens. They are a small garden bird and, even though they’re easy to mistake for Greenfinches, they’re much smaller.

Distinguishing features: Lime green feathers, black crowns.

UK Garden Bird identifier guide: Siskin

Greenfinch

Greenfinches have evolved from being woodland birds to UK garden visitors. This beautifully bright UK bird has learned to visit our gardens for food. They are now one of the most familiar garden birds.

Distinguishing features: Muted green feathers and a thick white beak.

UK Garden Bird identifier guide: Greenfinch

Great Tit

Telling UK garden birds apart, from the male and female isn’t usually hard. The females usually exhibit more muted colours and favour camouflage over exhibitionism (the domain of the males for attraction). However, this isn’t always the case.

To tell a male and female Great Tit apart:

  • The male Great Tit has a broad black stripe running down to its belly.
  • The females have a narrow stripe, which doesn’t reach the legs.

Distinguishing features: Black and white head, a yellow/green breast and back.

UK Garden Bird identifier guide: Great Tit

Blue Tit

Blue tits certainly like to keep busy, as the female can lay as many as 13 eggs. They don’t need a gym membership with all that running about to keep all those hungry chicks fed.

Distinguishing features: A mostly white face with blue and green plumage, and yellow underparts.

UK Garden Bird identifier guide: Blue Tit

Grey/Black Featured UK Garden Birds (Small)

Nuthatch

If you’ve ever had a dream about walking down a tree headfirst, maybe you were a Nuthatch in previous life? The Nuthatch is the only bird that can walk down a tree trunk head-first. It uses its sharp bill to open tree seeds.

Distinguishing features: Peach coloured breast, grey back.

Future Garden Bird ID Blog - Nuthatch

Coal Tit

The Coal Tit is hard to spot as it’s one of the shyer garden visitors. The best way to identify them is by the white patch on the back of its head.

Distinguishing features: Black cap, white cheeks, black and white back. Its underparts can appear green or have pink hues.

UK Garden Bird identifier guide: Coa Tit

Long Tailed Tit

The Long Tailed Tit is one of the smallest UK garden birds. At 9 grams, it weighs less than a £1 coin. This dimmunititive UK garden bird likes to travel in large groups, so make sure your feeders are topped up if they come visiting in your garden.

Distinguishing features: Fluffy black and white plumage, plus a very long tail.

UK Garden Bird identifier guide: Long Tailed Tit

Bird Identifier Guide: Medium Sized UK Garden Birds

Blackbird

Did you know that female Blackbirds aren’t even black? They’re brown – for improved camouflage when nesting. They do share the same bright yellow beak and ringed eyes, though.

Distinguishing features: Bright yellow beak and yellow-ringed eyes.

UK Garden Bird identifier guide:  Blackbird

Song Thrush

The Song Thrush lives up to its name, as one of the most tuneful UK garden birds. Its song is easy to distinguish, as it repeats each phrase two or three times over.

Distinguishing features: Brown in colour with a speckled cream breast. Repeats its song phrases two or three times over.

UK Garden Bird identifier guide: Song Thrush

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Woodpeckers can be heard drumming into a tree from more than 400m away! Woodpeckers like to bore holes in tree trunks to use for nesting.

Distinguishing features: Black and white plumage and red under tail. Males and females can be identified: males have a red mark on their nape (back of their head) and the females don’t.

UK Garden Bird identifier guide: Great Spotted Woodpecker

Starling

Starlings are among the most social UK garden birds, and this is particularly noticeable in winter, when they can be seen in large feeding flocks. The sight of a huge murmuration (flock) of Starlings is one of autumn’s real treats. That is out in the countryside. They can cause quite a bit of damage, not to mention mess, in urban areas, especially if they decide to roost over your car!

UK Garden Bird identifier guide: Starling Flock

Starlings love to feed in flocks and roost communally. If you leave your food out and wonder why it’s all gone in no time, a group of Starlings could well be responsible.

Distinguishing features: Glossy black plumage with purple and green metallic sheen.

UK Garden Bird identifier guide: Starling

Bird Identifier Guide: Large UK Garden Birds

Woodpigeon

One highly interesting, if not a tad disgusting, fact about Woodpigeons is; it’s one of the few birds to produce ‘crop milk’ for their young. This ‘milk’ is more nutritious than cows’ milk.

The crop is a pouch in many birds that resembles a stomach for storage and preliminary maceration of food.

Distinguishing features: Small, grey heads, white neck patches, a pink breast, and grey bodies.

UK Garden Bird identifier guide: Woodpigeon

Magpie

Magpies are intelligent and highly social with loud communication calls. Some people believe that you should say ‘hello Mr. Magpie’ when you see one to avoid bad luck.

Distinguishing features: Jet black with metallic flecks and white plumage. They’re also very noisy!

There’s even an old poem about Magpies:

One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret, never to be told.
Eight for a wish,
Nine for a kiss,
Ten a surprise you should be careful not to miss,
Eleven for health,
Twelve for wealth,
Thirteen beware it’s the devil himself.

UK Garden Bird identifier guide:  Magpie

Jackdaw

Jackdaws are one of the more resourceful UK garden birds and make the most of any situation. The jackdaw call is a familiar hard ‘tchack’ – where it takes its name. They commonly nest in chimneys, buildings, rock crevices and tree holes.

Distinguishing features: Striking dark silver feathers and a pale eye. No wonder they’re often mentioned in horror stories!

UK Garden Bird Identification Guide: Jackdaw

Now you know more about these popular UK garden visitors. Why don’t you make yourself a list (and a cuppa)? Spending 10-20 minutes watching your garden is relaxing. It’s good to keep a record and ticking off the birds you see visiting your bird feeders.

Garden tip: Making a list of birds to tick off for your children/grandchildren will keep them occupied while you enjoy some much needed quiet(er) time.

With practice soon be able to tell your Blackbird from your Jackdaw, and your Chaffinch from your Dunnock! Let us know in the comments, which garden birds you see in your garden.

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