# 'Best' birds you have seen in your garden !



## Big Red One (Oct 17, 2007)

Right guys thought I would put this up, any info on where you live (near woods/marshes etc - not your road name !) may be of interest !

I'll start (from memory over ten years ):

1.Bullfinch (pair)
2. Goldcrest
3. Sparrowhawk
4. Fieldfare
5. Jay

I live with no houses at the back, onto light woodland, a brook and eventually a park.

Have also seen buzzards overhead (and one in a tree last week, while out walking the dog), herons on the fence looking at next doors pond ! Seen kingfishers on the brook behind and Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, plus the 'usual' Magpies/Wood Pigeons/ Collared Doves/Greenfinch/Chaffinch/Wren/Robin stuff........ 

Any more anyone?
:mf_dribble:


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## loonymoony (Oct 22, 2009)

Ok heres mine...... we back onto fields and woodland on several sides, plus our neighbour has a huge lake on his land.

we get truck loads of the usual:
blue tits, great tits, robins, thrushes, blackbirds, chaffinches & wrens. Have a reisdent pair of Collared wood pidgeons, pheasants and two family groups of Magpies and Jackdaws that war ha!

right Favs and something a little different from the norm.......

Barn owls (don't see them really, but hear them hooooing to each other on our chimney pots ha!)
Lesser spotted and green woodpeckers
Bullfinches (we also have a pair!)
Long tailed tits 
Tree creepers (just cause they look weird)
Pied wagtails
A resident Heron (that eats a lot of the neighbours carp ha! oopsy!)


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## Guest (Aug 21, 2010)

Humm... hard to pick but here's my list :2thumb:

1. Kingfisher 
2. Jay 
3. Various Finches 
4. Herron (lower on the list as they eat the fish in the pond :devil
5. Robin (Common I know, but I like them  )


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## LoveForLizards (Apr 20, 2008)

Sparrowhawk, we have a male in the neighbour hood who we often see trying to clobber birds in the garden and stooping at bird feeders. 
And of course Barn Owls during the breeding season, we live about 50yds down the road from endless amounts of fields, ponds and woods, so we end up with males sitting on the shed and aviaries calling to our female for hours on end. :flrt:


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## Shell195 (May 31, 2007)

My friends garden backs onto a nature reserve and last year she had a night time visitor every night it was warm, it was a Nightjar. They are sooooo noisy but very rare in Lancashire


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## vawn (Jul 1, 2008)

i'm on a council estate that is wedged between the ocean and moorland with litlle marshy wooded thickets here and there, my garden and the houses around me are like in a circle around a little oasis which is mainly my garden with tress and ponds 
the best birds that i have seen. and there are many and wide a variety, have to be the buzzards over it, they dove in on the neighbours garden , the long tailed tits and the pair of barn owls


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## joeyboy (Jul 19, 2008)

Sparrowhawk

Some sort of Raven or a crow on steroids, basically like a crow, but someone double it's size and made it look tough. Maybe a common Raven, certainly didn't look like a crow to me size wise, this was a cat eating beast!...

Robbins


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## daftlassieEmma (Oct 23, 2008)

i'm surrounded by fields (used to have cattle, now crops) leading into woodland with a burn, and a golf course on one side 

- great spotted woodpecker pair: been visiting regualrly for 3/4 years now, was really special and exciting the first time they showed up - always nice to see them bringing their young down to feed 

- sparrowhawk pair: i love my raptors

- waxwing: very very brief glimpse of some one year, car drove down just as i got my binoculars in focus and they never came back that i saw

- treeccreeper: funky wee things

- coot: one came down to our garden in the winter when the burn was all frozen and used to paddle in a large drip tray type thing we had out, not very exciting but entertaining


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## Moodie (Aug 3, 2008)

My bird. In a bikini. :whistling2:


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## corvid2e1 (Jan 21, 2007)

lituraly 5 min ago, was letting the magpies out for their evening flight and heard the swallows mobbing something so looked up expecting to see the usual sparrowhawk, turned out to be a hobby. garden is surounded by farmland with a christmas tree plantation next door and woodland and lake nearby. saw some nice flocks this winter, loads of yellowhammers feeding with the chaffinches. redwings and fieldfairs. also counted 23 blackbirds visable all at once, with more in the hedge.


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## Amalthea (Oct 2, 2007)

Saw what I THINK was a merlin several years ago... Can't find anything else similar in books and such. And we get jays sometimes. Shell, is a nightjar the noisy night time singer? Makes a lovely song, but it's always when it's so quiet out, seems super loud *lol* If so, we got those ALL THE TIME!


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## Shell195 (May 31, 2007)

Amalthea said:


> Saw what I THINK was a merlin several years ago... Can't find anything else similar in books and such. And we get jays sometimes. Shell, is a nightjar the noisy night time singer? Makes a lovely song, but it's always when it's so quiet out, seems super loud *lol* If so, we got those ALL THE TIME!


 



Dont think so Jen, it sounds like this YouTube - Nightjar Call and went on for hours. It seems that they are very rare in the northwest


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## Big Red One (Oct 17, 2007)

Amalthea said:


> Saw what I THINK was a merlin several years ago... Can't find anything else similar in books and such. And we get jays sometimes. Shell, is a nightjar the noisy night time singer? Makes a lovely song, but it's always when it's so quiet out, seems super loud *lol* If so, we got those ALL THE TIME!


Maybe you're thinking of a Nightingale ?

That's a very nice bird to have around though .....................


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## brittone05 (Sep 29, 2006)

David - where in Norfolk are you? Would love to see your magpies and corvids  

We just moved to Norfolk and so far have only really had a few birds in the garden ( aside from the chooks lol ) - wood pigeons, collared doves I think?, couple of blue tits, I think thrush as well ( spotty chest, brown colour? )

Driving and being out in the lanes we see pheasant, grouse, I saw a white owl last night sat on a post outside Oxborough Hall, swifts, various birds of prey but I don't knopw what they are 

My bro in law lives North Cove way and he gets lots in his garden, jays, great tits, robins etc


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## Natrix (Dec 9, 2006)

I am between farmland and a national trust coastal and salt marsh reserve and I get spoilt rotten when it comes to bird species. I think the best was last winter we had a pair a cattle egrets roosting in a old plum tree every night at the end of my garden. We have also seen spoonbills flying over the garden on their way to the marsh on one occasion and a stork on another. We also see avocets from time to time as well as an occasional Marsh Harrier. 

Natrix


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## claphambeast (Aug 9, 2010)

I live in the middle of the country side with large wooded areas and fields around, so we get quite good wildlife!

We see lots of buzzards and sparrowhawks, its usally birds of prey. We get more grass snakes than anything else!

________________________________
1.1.0 Pogona vitticeps (Amber and Noddy the bearded dragons)
1.0.0 Weimaraner (Charlie the dog)


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## Amalthea (Oct 2, 2007)

Shell195 said:


> Dont think so Jen, it sounds like this YouTube - Nightjar Call and went on for hours. It seems that they are very rare in the northwest


Definitely not the same bird.... This is a beautiful song but LOUD!



Big Red One said:


> Maybe you're thinking of a Nightingale ?
> 
> That's a very nice bird to have around though .....................


Possibly  *goes to look* Yeah, very possibly that.


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## Woodsman (Aug 12, 2008)

Amalthea said:


> Definitely not the same bird.... This is a beautiful song but LOUD!
> 
> 
> 
> Possibly  *goes to look* Yeah, very possibly that.


 Not likely to be a Nightingale in Manchester.


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## jamestheball (Apr 28, 2009)

I live in South Australia so slightly different birds,

1. Wedge-tailed Eagle- I live in the riverland and these are quite common but a very impressive sight.

2.Australian Pelican- Again very common but impressive birds.

3.Peaceful Doves- Very secretive bird so haven't seen many.

4.Laughing Kookaburras- Wake me up every morning:lol2:
5.Various Parrots- 3 Large cockatoos (Sulphur-crested, Galah, Yellow-tailed Black) and also Grass Parrots, Yellow Rosella's, Mulga Parrots, Rainbow Lorikeets, Musk Lorikeets, Little Lorikeets, Ringnecks, Corella's. In all over 20 species have been recorded in the area.


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## Amalthea (Oct 2, 2007)

Woodsman said:


> Not likely to be a Nightingale in Manchester.


 
Don't know what it is, then. It's a beautiful song.... I kinda live in rural Manchester


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## corvid2e1 (Jan 21, 2007)

Amalthea said:


> Don't know what it is, then. It's a beautiful song.... I kinda live in rural Manchester


 there are a lot of birds that will sing at night, some of them very common, just more noticable when nothing else is singing. Members of the thrush family such as Blackbirds, Song thrushes and Robins (also includes the nightingale) regualy sing after dark, often in very built up areas.


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## Amalthea (Oct 2, 2007)

Ya learn something new every day


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## dizzee (Nov 3, 2008)

Im not sure what bird of prey it is but it caught a pigeon and started eating it out garden, is a regular visitor.




just click on the picture so see a larger pic.


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## Woodsman (Aug 12, 2008)

It's a female Sparrowhawk.The male is much smaller and unable to tackle pigeon sized birds.


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## dizzee (Nov 3, 2008)

thanks woodsman, always wondered.


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## Adam98150 (Jan 12, 2009)

Pigeon.


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## McQuillanX2 (Oct 29, 2009)

sparrow hawk eating a house sparrow


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## laurad (Sep 2, 2009)

none its more common birds like robins,blackbirds and pigeons.


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## cornboykeiran (May 8, 2010)

laurad said:


> none its more common birds like robins,blackbirds and pigeons.


 Oopps I posted as my mum lol. There are no unusual birds where I stay unfortunatly


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