Your favourite breeds of bird...

[WildRosie]

I've tried to categorise mine:

Regular garden birds - collared dove, very delicate and gentle birds;
- bullfinch, the male (sorry, not fair) is a great colour!

Birds of prey - barn owl, elegant and attractive;
- sparrowhawk, swift and purposeful.

Wildfowl - mute swan, clean and graceful;
- teal, brilliant colours.

Exotica - peacocks, unashamedly gaudy;
- hyacinth macaw, like all parrots, fabulous colours.

I could count the ring-necked parakeets as both garden and exotica, given the big populations in the UK. But I won't do that until I actually see one!

Crows are my fave, they’re just so clever. But also Dunnocks as they’re shy little things.

I don’t like cuckoos evil little bastards.

Blackbirds, love their singing.

As my username suggests: cockatiels! Naughty, intelligent, feisty little things but we wouldn't be without one in our house.

My favourite garden bird is a nuthatch. I also love secretary birds.

Thank you for the info on Facebook about the baby Magpie. I'll check that out later. Sounds so adorable!

😂

😂

I love them all but in particular

Woodpeckers, especially the greater spotted and love the swoop of the green ones.

Long tail tits, cute and love how they all stick together

Blackbird, just the perfect all black outfit and beautiful song.

Special call out for the friendly robins

My Favourite UK birds have to be eider ducks, followed by puffins. I love their voices. We live miles away from any, though.

Garden: Robin (naughty bench for the doves and wood pigeons that sit on our chimney pots and shout down them in the summer)

Almost garden (houses across the road): Swifts! Except that they are late this year - I'd like some warm weather please!

Canal: Herons (they have a real "I don't care" attitude round here -so used to walkers- and really annoy everybody's dogs by sitting just out of reach)
Swans - especially the sound of their wings when they get flying or try to land

Birds of prey - peregrines (not least because I am on the flightpath of roosting pairs and their webcam)

Woodpecker
Jay
Kestral/Kite
Blackbirds
snowtits
blue tits
Starlings when they murmur

thrush

i used to have so many birds where i lived before.
i like geese also

Penguins and puffins.

Where I live are a few old mill ponds over the road with at least one pair of herons in residence. Naturally they feed mainly from whatever fish and rodents they can find at home but are notorious for raiding the local back garden ponds too. They aren't popular!

I mentioned bullfinches in my original post. I've yet to see one at home, yet I often see them and goldfinches at my workplace. I occasionally see greenfinches at home and seem to hear chaffinches everywhere I go. Their song is so distinctive.

Mandarin ducks. Saw one on Windermere last week and couldn't stop watching it for about half an hour.

Pukeko top left from NZ
red cardinal top right USA
blue jay bottom USA

love watching the USA ones flitting in and out of trees, a bright splash of colour

I’m really lucky .. I live in a really old farm cottage in rural Kent and have so many birds visiting. But this week I have a male wren building a nest and a wild peacock in my porch 😆

I love them all! We get a wide variety in our garden. Regulars are dunnocks, wrens, long tailed tits, blue tits, great tits, Mr and Mrs Blackbird (who annoying dig up the flower beds around our drive when work hunting at dawn), robins, goldfinches (love their communal feeding and twittering), Jackdaws and wood pigeons. We hear nearby but have never seen chiff chaffs, a greater spotted woodpecker and a green woodpecker. We used to get Jays near by but not seen any for over a year. There are Herons living nearby, they sit on the roof of a food factory not far from us so we think they have found a good source. Better than them eating the ducklings 😔

We have a great bird hide not far from us. A pair of pheasants have nested there. We also saw a Goldcrest near there and it was so tiny but with a real set of lungs! It was completely unfazed by us being there, just concentrating on sharing it's song.

I forgot to add we have tawny owls too. We hear them at night calling to each other.

Robin - they remind me of my dad, his name was Robin and he died 18 years ago.
Long tail tits - first time I saw some was when I was a child, there used to be an apple tree opposite my bedroom window, a whole flock flew in, spent a few minutes hopping around the tree and went.
Goldfinches - as above, but also colourful and have a distinct call.
Tawny owls - rescued a young one that had fallen out of its nest, its sibling was dead next to it. Frequently woken at 3am by a pair shouting at each other in the public space opposite my flat in a town.
I like most raptors because they are awesome.

Had a sparrow hawk zoom past me once, about a foot off the ground. It then arked(?) over a gate and down back to foot above ground.
When we were doing our first house up, a bluetit nested inside ( the house was a shell), the fledglings practiced flying inside before finally going into the great outdoors.
There is an abundance of jackdaws and gulls that congregate and wake me up in the summer.
Don't get me started on freaking pigeons.

Vultures are incredible - digestive systems that kill pathogens like rabies and anthrax, huge wingspan, flights at record-breaking heights. But the bird I would dearly love to see in the wild is the hargila stork (also called the Greater Adjutant). Basically a dinosaur.

Sadly underrated comment.

I've found my people! I love birds.

Wood pigeon - understated, much character. I love they way the waddle around my garden hoping to snatch some chicken food. I also love it when they nest in our clematis and have the ugliest chicks 🥰
Wrens - tiny but their unusual movement always catches my eye.
Lark- instantly transported to summer as you walk through a field to their song.

I could watch birds all day. We keep chickens and ducks they all have such different personalities!

@moggerhanger I was enraptured by the vulture flying display at hawk conservancy trust. Incredible birds