25 common British garden birds and how to identify them

Attracting birds into the garden is straightforward and is as much about what you don't do as what you do. Avoid using insecticides and herbicides, leave trees, shrubs, hedges and climbers to mature, create plenty of areas with good undergrowth cover and allow herbaceous plant material to stand overwinter. If you create a garden that supports healthy soil and encourages biodiverse insect populations, it will also be good for mammals, amphibians and birds. Growing plants with berries, fruits and seeds is also important, and can be supplemented by providing good quality bird food.

Provide the right conditions for our feathered friends to feed, shelter and nest – and they will come.

Common garden birds in the UK

House sparrow, Passer domesticus

This gregarious garden bird often nests in holes in buildings or in grouped nest boxes on house walls. The male has a streaked brown back, brown head and neck, with a grey cap and black bib. Females and juveniles are less distinctly marked, with streaky backs and no bib. House sparrows feed on seeds and grains in autumn and winter, but in spring they need access to a plentiful supply of small invertebrates to feed their developing chicks. Although still among the most common birds in UK gardens, house sparrow populations have significantly declined in the past 50 years.

Blue tit, Cyanistes caeruleus

With its blue cap and wings, this charming, colourful tit is a familiar sight in many gardens. Feeding on peanuts and sunflower hearts at garden feeders, the adults collect caterpillars and other insects to feed to their young in spring and early summer. Blue tits commonly nest in garden bird boxes which mimic holes in trees – their natural nest sites. In winter they travel through woods and gardens in groups, often with other tits and small birds such as goldcrests.

Starling, Sturnus vulgaris

Starlings are striking birds – black with white, green and blue iridescent markings that become more prominent in winter. They gather in large flocks to feed and roost. At dusk they fly in huge synchronised 'murmurations' thought to offer protection for individuals within the flock from avian predators such as peregrine falcons. They visit garden bird feeders in winter and feed on invertebrates in summer. Groups of starlings can sometimes be seen picking leatherjackets (cranefly larvae) out of lawns. They can often be heard whistling and singing – starlings are wonderful mimics. Unfortunately, the UK’s breeding population has declined by more than 50 per cent in the past 25 years.

Woodpigeon, Columba palumbus

The ubiquitous woodpigeon is actually a remarkably attractive bird with a soft pink breast, blue-grey head and white neck patch. It is the UK’s largest pigeon, and pairs nest year-round, although their main breeding season is in the summer. Woodpigeons eat insects and a wide range of plant material. They can be seen in parks, gardens, woodland and fields all across the UK.

Blackbird, Turdus merula

Male blackbirds are black with a yellow beak and yellow eye-rings, while females are brown and speckled, rather like a song thrush, though the speckles are not as distinctive on a female blackbird. Blackbirds eat mainly invertebrates and fruit. They tend to nest in between forked branches in shrubs, trees and climbers, so areas in gardens with mature, dense planting are ideal for these common thrushes. You might hear snatches of blackbird subsong in winter before the breeding season gets underway, then male blackbirds start singing with gusto around the beginning of March - a beautiful sound that heralds the arrival of spring. In some milder regions of the UK, however, the full song can be heard as early as December, possibly due in part to warmer winters as a result of climate change.

Robin, Erithacus rubecula

Fiercely territorial, the robin sings throughout the year, and its trickling song is thought to sound more mournful in winter. Robins are ground feeders, so they tend to come to bird tables rather than hanging feeders, and prefer seed mixes and sunflower hearts to peanuts. You can also spot them searching for worms on lawns. Males and females look alike, and juveniles are brown and spotty without the red chest of the adults. Robins are fearsome fighters among their own kind, but often follow gardeners around to catch invertebrates that are unearthed during digging. Sometimes garden robins become quite tame.

Goldfinch, Carduelis carduelis

The goldfinch is an exquisite garden bird with a red face, white cheeks, black cap and golden bars on the wings. They usually visit in flocks called charms, and the first you hear is their tinkling call, like a shaking of tiny bells. These small finches are seed feeders and they're attracted to sunflower hearts and nyger seeds. In autumn and winter, they feed in meadows and gardens on seeds from plants such as lavender, teasel, knapweed and Verbena bonariensis.

Great tit, Parus major

Larger than the blue tit and with greeny-yellow wings, a yellow breast, black head and black stripe down the breast, the great tit is a common sight in gardens, both on hanging feeders and in deciduous trees. Males and females look similar, but males can be distinguished by their more obvious black stripe. Like blue tits, great tits often nest in bird boxes around the garden and start laying eggs around late March to early April. Their main call is easily distinguished with its see-sawing ‘teacher teacher teacher’ repetition, but they also have a wide range of other songs and calls.

Magpie, Pica pica

Magpies are doing well in urban areas and you can’t ignore their noisy chattering and bickering when they gather in flocks to roost for the night. Males and females are similar in appearance. Males are a little larger, but the size difference is not significant enough to be a reliable identification feature. Magpies might look merely black and white at first glance, but their plumage has a blue iridescent sheen which takes on a greeny hue down the long tail. They can be seen in and around gardens throughout the year.

Long-tailed tit, Aegithalos caudatus

This adorable small British bird can be seen bouncing through the branches in garden trees and shrubs in pairs during the breeding season and in flocks, sometimes called voleries, in winter. As their name suggests, they have long, narrow tails, longer than their bodies, and white, black and creamy-pink plumage. As well as insects, they also eat peanuts and fat at garden feeders. Long-tailed tits start nest building as early as the beginning of February, constructing intricate domed nests made of lichen, moss and spiders’ webs and lined with around 1,500 feathers.

Wren, Troglodytes troglodytes

For such a tiny bird, the wren has an extremely powerful voice and you can often hear it singing and trilling while the secretive singer remains hidden in the undergrowth. If you get a glimpse of this fast-moving bird, you’ll see it has a brown barred body, with the barring especially visible on the wings and tail, a white stripe over the eye and a cocked tail. They have one or two broods of chicks and nest in dense vegetation or open-fronted nest boxes.

Dunnock, Prunella modularis

The dunnock is a common garden bird about the size of a robin. Although these small brown and grey birds are often overlooked, they have a sweet warbling song. You'll notice they move with an upright stance as they shuffle along the ground. Primarily insectivores, you may see dunnocks beneath feeding stations, eating seeds that other birds have dropped.

Collared Dove, Streptopelia decaocto

Collared doves were first recorded breeding in the UK during the 1950s, having spread across Europe from Asia and Turkey in the early twentieth century. These attractive doves are now common in UK gardens, especially in rural areas. They're smaller than a wood pigeon and grey-pink in colour with a narrow black half-collar around the back of the neck. Collared doves nest in evergreen and deciduous trees, shrubs and climbers, making a rudimentary platform of sticks upon which they lay two white eggs. They mainly eat seeds and can be seen feeding under seed feeders. In summer they also eat insects, while berries provide extra sustenance in autumn.

Song thrush, Turdus philomelos

With its characteristic repeated song phrases, spotty breast and habit of smashing snails open on stones, the song thrush is a familiar bird to many gardeners. Sadly, this may not be the case for much longer as its breeding population has dropped by around half since the late 1960s, most likely as a result of habitat loss causing food shortages, especially for young birds. The song thrush is slightly smaller than a blackbird and lacks the red underwings and pale stripe above the eye of the redwing. They are more often seen in gardens than the related mistle thrush, which is bigger and has more distinct markings on the breast.

Greenfinch, Chloris chloris

Greenfinches are commonly seen at garden feeders eating sunflower seeds. Recently, numbers have been seriously affected by Trichomonosis – a parasite-induced disease that causes deaths and that is passed from an infected bird to other birds at feeders. It can affect many species, including house sparrows, great tits and other finches. For this reason, it's important to clean bird feeders regularly. With their colourful green-yellow plumage and sturdy beaks, greenfinches are easily recognisable in the garden. They have a twittering song which ends in a long wheeze, and often nest in evergreen shrubs.

Redwing, Turdus iliacus

The redwing is a small thrush with a brown back and creamy breast streaked with brown, rather like a song thrush. It has a creamy stripe above the eye and an orange-red patch under each wing which is particularly visible in flight. This delightful thrush arrives in the UK around October from Scandinavia, the Faroes and Iceland to feast on ripe berries and fruit, and returns to its breeding grounds in spring. Redwings sometimes visit gardens looking for food, especially in periods of very cold weather. Planting berried shrubs and trees, and leaving windfall fruit on the ground, helps redwings and other birds survive over the winter.

Great Spotted Woodpecker, Dendrocopos major

Although you might think woodpeckers wouldn’t visit gardens, they can often be seen at bird feeders, feasting on peanuts, mealworms and suet. When they’re not taking advantage of food offered in gardens, these distinctive woodpeckers hammer holes in trees to find insects such as beetle grubs. About the size of a starling, the great spotted woodpecker is primarily black and white, with a red patch under the tail. Juveniles have red crowns and males have red on the back of the neck which enables identification of the sexes.

Sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus

When we put out food for garden birds, we inadvertently create a feeding station for predators such as sparrowhawks. These small but powerful raptors often fly low over walls and fences, swooping in at speed to catch prey like tits and finches from garden feeders. The good news is that sparrowhawk predation doesn’t appear to have a significant effect on overall population numbers, and they are magnificent birds to watch with their pale breasts with conspicuous barring, yellow eyes and sharp talons. Male sparrowhawks are smaller than females, with a blue-grey back. Females and juveniles have dark brown backs, darker barring on the breast and a white stripe above the eye.

Feral pigeon, Columba livia

Feral pigeons are commonly seen in gardens, often moving around in small flocks. Their wild ancestor, the rock dove, is now found only in coastal areas of Scotland and Northern Ireland, while the feral pigeon can be seen across the whole of the UK. Feral pigeons eat mostly grain and seeds, and will eat wild flower seeds. They nest in cavities in buildings, on ledges and anywhere else that resembles the nooks and crannies in rock faces favoured by their wild cousins. Their plumage varies widely from the grey, black and green form similar to the rock dove, to white birds and mixes of white, grey and brown.

Jackdaw, Coloeus monedula

Jackdaws are the smallest members of the crow family in the UK. The adults are black with grey around the back of the neck and pale irises. These sociable birds can sometimes be seen foraging in gardens – you might hear their loud ‘Jack Jack’ calls. They feed on a wide range of scraps, grains, fats, fruits, invertebrates and even small mammals. They will also eat other birds’ eggs if they can find them. Jackdaws breed in colonies, choosing to build their nests in holes in buildings, trees or even chimneys. They're doing well in the UK – a recent survey showed a sixty per cent increase over 20 years.

Blackcap, Sylvia atricapilla

Blackcaps are easily identified by their crowns, which are black in males and brown in females and juveniles. Both males and females have pale grey bodies with grey-brown wings. Blackcaps have a melodic song and they breed in shrubby undergrowth. Blackcap song is similar to that of the garden warbler, but these two species look very different and garden warblers are less likely to be found in gardens, despite their name, as they require woodland and dense scrub. In autumn the blackcaps that spend summer in the UK migrate to southern Europe, but in recent years their place has been taken by other birds from central Europe that spend the winter here, largely as a result of supplementary feeding in gardens. Look out for blackcaps visiting bird feeders from mid to late winter.

Chiffchaff, Phylloscopus collybita

Chiffchaffs usually arrive in early March from North Africa and the Mediterranean, although some birds are now overwintering in the UK, most likely as a result of milder winters due to climate change. These greeny-yellow warblers look very similar to willow warblers, but have a completely different song. Willow warblers have a sweet descending melody, while chiffchaffs sing their names over and over: ‘chiff-chaff chiff-chaff’. They're more likely to be seen in gardens than willow warblers, which are more often seen in open woodland. As insectivores, chiffchaffs don’t visit seed feeders. Instead, they can be seen flitting about in trees eating flies, aphids and caterpillars.

Coal Tit, Periparus ater

Smaller than both great tits and blue tits, the coal tit has a black head with white cheeks and a prominent white patch at the back of the neck. It has a buff body and blue-grey wings. Coal tits feed on conifer seeds and also visit seed feeders. In the winter, these little birds often join flocks of other tits moving through the countryside looking for food. These small British birds nest in holes in trees, often in conifers, and rarely use nest boxes.

Siskin, Spinus spinus

These attractive little finches sometimes visit gardens in small groups during the winter to feast at seed feeders. The male is green with a black crown, chin and wing patches, and a yellow-green breast. Females are streaky grey-green and lack the black crown of the male. Siskins eat tree seeds, such as birch, alder, pine and spruce, and add insects to their diet in summer. They tend to visit gardens in the New Year, especially in years when the Sitka spruce seed crop is meagre and in periods of wet weather when cones close up, restricting access to seeds.

Chaffinch, Fringilla coelebs

Female chaffinches have greeny-brown plumage with white patches on the wings, while males have bright orange heads and bodies, a blue-grey crown and nape, and brown back. Chaffinches are ground feeders, often seen below bird tables eating the seeds which other birds have dropped. Chaffinches nest in trees and shrubs, and need a good supply of insects in summer to feed both adults and chicks. This beautiful finch is a common garden bird, but there have been sharp population declines since 2012, possibly due to the parasite-induced disease, Trichomonosis. As with greenfinches, the best way to help chaffinches is to ensure that garden feeders are regularly cleaned.