Dear Readers, to shake things up a bit I thought I’d do us a little quiz on British birds and their calls/songs today. This is just for fun: I will publish the answers tomorrow, but will give a special shout out to the first person to get all (or the largest number of) the answers right (just pop them into the comments).
So, for starters, what birds are these? All photographs are taken in my East Finchley back garden, and, just to make it more challenging, not all of them are my best work :-).
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty One
And for bonus points, see if you can identify these: all the birds are pictured above. All recordings are from the Xeno Canto website
22. Who is singing their head off here?
23. Who is raising the alarm here?
24. Which bird makes this sad little call?
25. Who is responsible for this jolly call? You can hear one of our earlier bird calls in the background towards the end…
And finally, who sounds very cross here?
Have fun, and I’ll ‘see’ you on Tuesday with the answers, and a request for some advice from you proper gardeners out there….
1 Blue tit
2 Collared dove
3 Starling
4 Great tit
5 Chaffinch
6 Sparrow
7 Parakeet
8 Heron
9 Blackbird
10??
11 Ferral pigeon
12 Jackdaw
13??
14??
15??
16 Greenfinches
17 Wagtail
18 Great spotted woodpecker
19 Robin
20??
21??
22 Blackbird
23 Robin
24??
25 Crow
26 Blue tit?
Birds are:-
Blue Tit
Collared Dove
Starling
Great Tit
Goldfinch
House Sparrow
Green Lorikeet
Heron
Hen Blackbird
Hen Chaffinch
Wood Pigeon
Jackdaw
Sparrowhawk
Magpie
Song Thrush
Greenfinch (male and female)
Pied Wagtail
Greater Spotted Woodpecker
Robin
Black Cap
Wren
Could 13 be a sparrowhawk of some kind? I don’t know if you get them there. I think this quiz is a lovely idea!
1, Bluetit
2, Collared Dove
3, Starling
4, Great Tit
5, Goldfinch
6, House Sparrow
7, Ring Necked Parakeet
8, Heron
9, Blackbird (female)
10, Chaffinch (female)
11, Wood Pigeon
12, Jackdaw
13, Sparrow Hawk
14, Magpie
15, Song Thrush
16, Siskin
17, Pied Wagtail
18, Great Spotted Woodpecker
19, Robin
20, Blackcap (male)
21, Garden Warbler
22, Chaffinch??
23, Blackbird
24, ??
25, Jackdaws
26, Wren
Fabulous idea. 👍 So here are the votes from the Swiss jury… 😉
1. Blue Tit
2. Collared Dove
3. Starling
4. Great Tit
5. Goldfinch
6. House Sparrow
7. Rose-ringed Parakeet
8. Grey Heron
9. Blackbird
10. Chaffinch
11. Pigeon
12. Jackdaw
13. Sparrow Hawk
14. Magpie
15. Nightingale
16. Siskin
17. Pied Wagtail
18. Great Spotted Woodpecker
19. Robin
20. Black Cap
21. Wren
22. Robin
23. Blackbird
24. Sparrowhawk
25. Magpie
26. Blackbird (We hedged our bets a bit here, or is it a trick?)
American here, so here goes:
1. Blue and gray birblet.
2. Collared Dove
3. Starling
4. Same blue and gray birblet as in #1, but bigger hat and no eyeliner. Obviously in a hurry this morning and no time to shower, so covering bedhead. Doesn’t fool me.
5. Beau Brummel bird
6. Sparrow
7. Parakeet
8. Heron
9. Drab bird
10. Little Brown Job
11. Some Kinda Pigeon
12. Nevermore Wannabe (crow)
13. Sparrow’s Nightmare (sparrowhawk)
14. Tip Top Bird
15. Aria Birb
16. Yellow Finch
17. Stick-legged Sad Face
18. Woodpecker
19. Ooh, ooh! I know this one! Robin!
20. Nunya Bizness bird
21. Even Littler Browner Job
Well, you won’t win for accuracy but boy did this make me laugh, thank you`