Answers & solutions

Compare your answers with our answers and reasoning below. How well did you do, this month?

BIRD 1

We start with a chunky bird ‘hiding’ behind the flimsiest of twigs. There is still enough bird on show, here, to identify it. It has the build of a typical smallish perching bird (passerine) with a sparrow-like appearance, emphasised by the dull colours and the ‘conical’, typical seedeater’s bill. But the steep ‘flat’ forehead and almost angular crown are wrong for female-type House Sparrow, as is the lack of a clearly defined long pale supercilium (‘eyebrow’) behind the eyes. There is, though, a ‘broken’ eyering. Other features include greyish-buff head (darker on crown), upper breast and flanks, whiter lower breast, belly and undertail coverts and dark wings with a (concealed) white wing-bar This is a female Chaffinch, a typical bird of coniferous woods.

Key features

n Conical, pink and grey, seedeater’s bill

n Angular peak to crown; broken eyering

n Grey underparts and white belly and undertail

n White bars in wing

BIRD 2

Here is another bird perching in a conifer; but quite a different ilk from Bird 1! It is a bigger bird, with the small-headed, plump-bodied structure of a ‘gamebird’. There are a few UK gamebirds which readily perch in trees, notably the Pheasant and the Black Grouse. The shaggy, ‘furry’ legs are definitely not those of a Pheasant; this is clearly a grouse. But the bold colours and patterning of this bird are wrong for the nicely marked, but more cryptic ‘greyhen’ or female Black Grouse. Our bird has a very thick bill, striking orange throat and breast, and lovely barring on the largely white belly. It can only be a female Capercaillie, a bird restricted largely to the Caledonian forest remnants of Scotland, and one which is very much at home eating pine needles in Scots Pines.

Key features

n Thick-billed ‘gamebird’

n Distinctive warm, orange throat and breast

n Heavily ‘furred’ legs

n Beautifully barred plumage

BIRD 3

This bird is a raptor, as testified by the short hooked bill; a broad-winged bird of prey, without the long pointed wings of a falcon. The wings look relatively short, the tail relatively long and these features combined with the barring of the belly point to this being one of the Accipiter hawks, which in the UK mean Sparrowhawk or Goshawk, an infamously tricky pair and pitfall for ‘beginners’. Size and structure are important, but so are some plumage features. Both species are barred underneath, but juvenile Goshawk is streaked longitudinally (unlike this bird) and adult Goshawks tend to be paler and lack the brown tones of this bird. Goshawks also look very long-tailed (with rounded, not square, tail corners) and no warm colours on the throat. This bird is a Sparrowhawk, perhaps a young male.

Key features

n Blunt-winged raptor

n Relatively short wings and long tail

n Brown-barred underparts

n Orange eye and throat imply young male

BIRD 4

Surely, you can see that this strikingly patterned bird is one of the true tits. The black crown, white cheeks and black bib are unmistakable. This combination immediately gets rid of Blue and Crested Tits from the equation (both having non-black crowns). So, that narrows it down to Coal, Great, Marsh and Willow Tits. Great Tits have a black stripe from the bib down the centre of the belly (wider in males) and have largely yellow underparts. Both Marsh and Willow Tits have much smaller ‘bibs’. This leaves us with Coal Tit, a conclusion backed up by the buffy underparts, blue-grey upperparts, and that white stripe, the tip of which you can see at the back of the crown; classic Coal Tit. Coal Tits are our smallest tits and also the most likely to be seen in a conifer plantation.

Key features

n Big-headed, shiny black crown

n Broad black bib

n Buff underparts

n White on nape

BIRD 5

A pinkish bodied bird comes in to land on a mossy branch or tree stump, somewhere in a wood. That is a good start, but there is so much extra information in this photograph, you have surely named it correctly... Firstly, there is the black streaked white crown, the bold black ‘moustache’ and the stumpy, thick black bill. Then there are the broad ‘fingered’ wings. And, wait a minute, are those not striped patches of almost Kingfisher blue on the leading edge of the wings? The legs and feet look yellow ochre and the undertail and underside of the flight feathers a short shiny grey/ black, with white undertail coverts. This can only be a Jay, often the only crow species you may see in a coniferous wood.

Key features

n Pink body and underwing coverts

n Black-streaked white crown

n Black moustache

n Diagnostic blue wing patches

BIRD 6

Here is a bird in a very similar pose to that of Bird 4; and this is no coincidence, as we wanted to emphasise the similarities and differences between the two different birds. Like Bird 4, the broad black bib is a tell-tale tit indicator. But the big difference is the crown, which is speckled black and white, rather than black. That immediately rules out all the other British tit species! Another look at the crown and you will notice that it extends behind the head into a point as a crest (you can guess where this is heading). Only Blue Tit and Crested Tit have a dark eyestripe with white above it, as a supercilium (‘eyebrow’), like this. But Blue Tits have blue caps. This is a Crested Tit, a bird isolated in the UK to Scottish Caledonian forest areas.

Key features

n Unmistakable, speckled pointed crest and crown

n Black bib

n Brown upperparts, buff underparts

n Black eyestripe

MY FAVOURITE SITE “THE REMNANT OF CALEDONIAN FOREST AT ABERNETHY IS A WONDERFUL PLACE FOR BIRDS” MATT MERRITT, EDITOR