Birdwatch

Build your own nestbox, get romantic this St Valentine’s Day, look for Dippers, try our February challenge and much more.

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ALTHOUGH all are easily identified in the right circumstan­ces, there are several middle-sized species that can give you a little identifica­tion workout as they fly towards you at a height. Expertise is not about telling a bird perched at close range, sideways on, in good light, but more about getting it right at a glance and at a distance. Maybe a near-silhouette in a pale grey sky.

Test yourself: a bird coming towards you with a heavy body, wings rather tapered, slightly swept back, angled or bowed, with steady beats, and moderately long tail. It could be Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Eurasian Sparrowhaw­k or Common Kestrel (or even one of several others such as Feral Rock Dove or Mistle Thrush).

Is the tail long (even on this foreshorte­ned head-on view) and very slim? Perhaps a Common Kestrel. Or straight, square, narrow – maybe a Eurasian Sparrowhaw­k, especially if it has a flap-and-glide flight pattern. A broader, rounder tail, fanned a little towards the tip, might be a clue that it’s a Woodpigeon – a glimpse of the white band across the middle underneath could confirm it. A dark tail with a paler tip suggests the slimmer, lightweigh­t Collared Dove.

Get it sorted out quickly, because it will soon be overhead and perfectly obvious! Identifyin­g such a bird right first time at long range gives you a bit more confidence. But the more you look at distant dots, the more you try, the better you will get. If it turns out to be a Peregrine Falcon, so much the better. Rob Hume

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Test your ID skills by trying to recognise birds in flight, like this Common Kestrel.

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