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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 6h

The greylag is the only goose that has always bred wild in Britain. Every farmyard goose descends from it too. The plump white bird on the village green is a greylag in a party frock. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #greylaggoose

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 23h

A barn owl flies in near silence thanks to a comb-like fringe on the front edge of its wing feathers that breaks up the air. Its prey often never hears it coming until it's far too late. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #barnowl

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The wood warbler keeps two songs going. One is a shivering trill that speeds up like a spinning coin settling. The other is a run of sad piping notes. It swaps between them from the same perch. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #woodwarbler

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Nearly every Svalbard barnacle goose on Earth spends winter on one estuary: the Solway Firth. Down to about 300 birds in the 1940s from hunting the flock now tops 40,000. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #barnaclegoose

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The 'start' in redstart is an old word for tail from Old English steort. So the name just means red tail and it has nothing to do with starting anything. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #redstart

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

You can barely tell a willow warbler from a chiffchaff by sight. Their travels could not differ more. The willow warbler crosses the Sahara while many chiffchaffs now winter here in Britain. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #willowwarbler

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The mandarin is fading across its native East Asia yet thrives here from escapes. Britain's feral flock may hold close to a tenth of the world total. A safety net for a declining duck. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #mandarinduck

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

A robin singing at 2am in town usually isn't fooled by moonlight. It's streetlights and daytime traffic noise pushing its song into the dark and it's the bird most often mistaken for a nightingale. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #robin

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A blackcap fights off a garden warbler as fiercely as its own kind. Play a garden warbler's song to one and it storms in looking for a scrap. Two species treating each other as rivals. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #gardenwarbler

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The lesser whitethroat has two songs. A scratchy warble you only catch up close. Then a dry rattle that carries across whole fields. The bird stays buried deep in the hedge the whole time. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #lesserwhitethroat

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The grey wagtail is badly named. Underneath it glows lemon yellow brighter than many a yellow wagtail. The grey is only its back. A slate coat over a canary waistcoat by a rushing stream. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #greywagtail

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Not every marsh harrier male grows the smart grey wings of the field guide. In some populations plenty keep female-brown plumage for life. That makes telling the sexes apart a real headache. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #marshharrier

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Most British shelduck cross the North Sea to moult off Germany. A few thousand skip that trip for one place: Bridgwater Bay in Somerset. It is Britain's only major shelduck moulting ground. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #somerset #shelduck

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

An osprey grips a fish two toes front and two behind. It swivels an outer toe right round while spiny scales on its soles bite into something as slippery as a wet fish. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #osprey

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Male hen harriers are unusual among our raptors for keeping a harem. A single well-fed male may provision several nests at once, with up to five females depending on him for food. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #henharrier

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Tufted ducks can dive over six metres down to feed on mussels and snails. They often share lakes with diving pochards, nicking food that drifts up when the pochards dig it out. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #BirdOfTheDay #LightAndShadow #birds #tuftedduck

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Those bright yellow feet are hunting gear. A little egret paddles and shivers them over the mud to spook hidden fish into bolting. The lemon flash may lure prey out where dark feet would not. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #littleegret

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

A kingfisher solves hard physics. Each eye has two focusing spots. Hitting the water it switches to binocular vision to correct for how water bends light so the fish sits right where it looks. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #kingfisher

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The line that cormorants lack waterproofing is only half true. Each feather has a wettable outer fringe to cut buoyancy for the dive plus a waterproof core holding a thin layer of warm air. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #cormorant

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Rooks never use tools in the wild, yet in the lab they solve Aesop's fable for real, dropping stones into a tube to raise the water and float a worm into reach, using close to the fewest needed. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #rook

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

For all that six foot wingspan the red kite is a bit of a softie. Its feet and talons are weak so it mostly scavenges carrion and roadkill rather than catching prey of its own. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #redkite

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

A great crested grebe chick has a bare patch of skin on its crown that flushes hot scarlet the hungrier it gets. Feed it and the red drains away within minutes. A living fuel gauge. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #greatcrestedgrebe

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Willow Tits carve their own nest holes in rotten stumps. They chisel out the wood themselves rather than using an existing cavity like other tits. Sadly they've vanished by 90% since the 70s, one of Britain's fastest declining birds. Learn birds free at learn-birds.com #BirdOfTheDay #Paridae

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Carrion crows in Japan crack walnuts by dropping them on road crossings, letting cars roll over them, then fetching the kernels when the lights go red. The young learn it by watching. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #crow

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The grey partridge lays one of the largest clutches of any bird. Fifteen eggs is normal with up to twenty on record, all packed into a scrape on bare ground. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #greypartridge

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The little grebe is a tidy secret keeper. Before slipping off the nest it drags a blanket of soggy weed over the eggs to hide them from crows then vanishes underwater without a ripple. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #littlegrebe

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A wren weighs about as much as a £1 coin, yet belts out a song near 90 decibels. Pound for pound it puts out roughly ten times the sound power of a crowing rooster. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #wren

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A red-legged partridge hen can lay two clutches at once in separate nests. She sits one herself while the cock broods the other. Two families raised side by side by one pair. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #redleggedpartridge

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

A cock pheasant does not just take a mate. In spring he holds a patch of ground plus a harem of hens that trail about after him. Some cocks gather ten or more. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #pheasant

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Redshank chicks can feed themselves within hours of hatching. Both parents often split the brood between them and go their separate ways to raise the young. They only team up again the following spring. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #BirdOfTheDay #Silhouette #birds #redshank

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

A goldcrest weighs about the same as a 20p coin, yet lays up to 12 eggs that together outweigh her. They sit in two layers and she warms the lower ones with her bare, hot legs. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #firecrest

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Shovelers feed with their bills flat on the water, sieving out tiny food through comb-like edges called lamellae. A group swimming in tight circles stirs up food from below for everyone. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #BirdOfTheDay #Mamas&Papas #birds #ducks

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Moorhens flip the script. The females do the fighting over mates. The heaviest hens win the scraps then pair off with the smallest fattest males around. Chubby little chap wins the day. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #moorhen

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Goldcrests weigh about as much as a 20p coin, yet many cross the North Sea from Scandinavia each autumn. Fishermen once called them woodcock pilots, thinking they hitched a ride on the bigger birds. They actually make the flight entirely under their own steam. #BirdOfTheDay #AngryBirds #Goldcrest

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

A gannet has no brood patch. It hatches its single egg under its feet, wrapping the warm blood-rich webs over the top like a little hot water bottle. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #gannet

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Ravens point without fingers. A bird will hold up a twig or bit of moss in its bill to draw a partner's gaze to it. The first case of such gesturing found outside the primates. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #raven

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

A waxwing's bright red wing spots aren't feathers. They're waxy tips of the feather shafts and birds grow more with age. Pairs tend to match up by number, so it doubles as a badge of seniority. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #waxwing

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Some UK blackcaps aren't leaving for winter any more. Birds breeding in Germany now fly here to spend the cold months instead of heading south. It's a brand new migration route, born in just a few decades. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #BirdOfTheDay #Mouthful #birds #blackcap

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Our yellow wagtail is a British speciality. The bright yellow-headed race flavissima breeds almost nowhere else on Earth. Continental birds wear a blue-grey cap instead. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #yellowwagtail

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

The kittiwake is the gull that shuns the seaside. It spends the whole winter far out on the open Atlantic and touches land only to nest on sheer cliffs in summer. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #kittiwake

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Starlings can imitate car alarms, mobile ringtones and even chainsaws. One kept in captivity learned to mimic a phone and fooled its owner every time. Mozart even kept a pet starling that could sing part of one of his concertos. Learn UK birds free at learn-birds.com #BirdOfTheDay #Iridescence

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Britain's smallest woodpecker is no bigger than a house sparrow. It is also slipping away quietly. Numbers have fallen by around 83 percent since 1970 with perhaps 2,000 pairs left. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #lesserspottedwoodpecker

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The great black-backed gull is the largest gull on Earth. A big one can catch an adult puffin then swallow it whole. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #greatblackbackedgull

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

A swift can't perch. All four toes point forward and its feet are the shortest of any bird, good only for clinging to a wall. Its name Apus even means 'without feet'. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #swift

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Dunnocks look shy and monogamous but their love lives are chaotic. A female often mates with two or three males in quick succession. All of them then help feed her chicks, thinking they might be the father. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #BirdOfTheDay #ABCD #birds #dunnock

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Researchers coloured male swallows' breasts a deeper red with a marker and within a week the birds' own testosterone had climbed by over a third. Looking the part seems to change the bird itself. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #swallow

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

A turtle dove has nothing to do with the reptile. The name copies its song. Latin turtur mimics that soft rolling turr turr purr you hear on a warm June morning. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #turtledove

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

For an owl the little owl eats oddly small prey. Beetles, earwigs, worms make up much of its diet, gathered on foot in the half light. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #littleowl

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Where trees are scarce the stock dove goes underground. It will lay its eggs down a rabbit burrow. A pigeon nesting in a hole in the ground is a genuinely odd sight. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #stockdove

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Count the Pochard on a British lake in winter and you will see far more drakes than ducks. Dominant males hold the grounds nearest the breeding range, pushing the females much further south. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #pochard

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