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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 7h

Skylarks were once food. In the 1890s up to 40,000 a day reached London's Leadenhall Market in sacks. They were netted off the fields by night for the table. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #skylark

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 14h

On estuaries Wigeon often shadow Coots and Brent Geese poised to grab the eelgrass those birds dislodge. A grazing duck letting others do the digging. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #wigeon

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

I built a little app to help you learn the birds in your own garden. It covers UK birds by sight and song and it uses spaced repetition so they stay in your head. It's free (there's no account or ads) and it works offline. learn-birds.com

A Learn Birds promo card with a QR code linking to the free app for learning UK birds by sight and song.

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

A song thrush cracks snails on a favourite stone anvil and it is a skill it has to learn. Youngsters get it wrong at first. They bash snails on soft ground and pebbles against the wrong rock. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #songthrush

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

A hobby will take dragonflies on the wing then pass each one from foot to bill in mid-air eating as it flies. In early summer it barely touches anything else. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #hobby

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Much of Britain's breeding Gadwall likely trace to a single pair caught in a Norfolk decoy around 1850. Pinioned so they could not fly home they stayed to nest and others followed. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #gadwall

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

In a murmuration each starling only tracks its six or seven nearest neighbours rather than the whole flock. That simple rule is why thousands can wheel and turn as one without ever colliding. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #starling

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The willow tit is the only British tit that digs its own nest. It chisels fresh into a soft rotten stump each spring. Tidy woods leave it nowhere to carve. That is part of why it is slipping away. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #willowtit

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The Mallard is the king of ducks for interbreeding. It crosses with 40-plus species and leaves fertile young. In places like New Zealand that quietly swamps rarer native ducks out of existence. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #mallard

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

On freezing nights a treecreeper hollows out a snug oval in the soft bark of a giant redwood and sometimes a whole huddle of them piles into one to share body heat. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #treecreeper

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The marsh tit buries food all across its patch so it grows the brain to match. For its size the memory part of its brain runs far bigger than a great tit's. The great tit is the larger bird of the two. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #marshtit

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

In December 1967 a pilot over the Hebrides met a flock of whooper swans at 27,000 feet. That is airliner height. It stands among the highest flights ever logged for any bird. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #whooperswan

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The nuthatch is named for how it eats. It jams a nut or acorn into a crack in the bark then hammers it open with its bill. Nut hack said quickly becomes nuthatch. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #nuthatch

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Spring caterpillars now peak earlier each year. The pied flycatcher times its trip north by African daylight so it lands too late for the feast. Some Dutch woods have lost nine birds in ten. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #piedflycatcher

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The mute swan is misnamed. It hisses more than sings yet its wings do the singing. In flight they throb a musical hum you can hear over a mile off. The loud trumpeters are the winter whoopers. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #muteswan

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

That classic 'twit twoo' is two owls not one. The female gives a sharp 'kewick' and the male answers with a wavering hoot. A single tawny owl never says the whole phrase. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #tawnyowl

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The spotted flycatcher is one of very few British songbirds sharp enough to spot a cuckoo's egg and throw it out. Get that good and the cuckoo gives up. It rarely bothers them now. Learn your UK birds free at learn-birds.com #birds #UKbirds #spottedflycatcher

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Thea (Learn Birds) @learnbirds.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

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 · 30/09/2026

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

Lovely find. Redcar's turning up some real quality this autumn.

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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

Completely agree. First bird for me today was a robin belting out that wistful autumn song from a fence post. Blackbirds around here seem to go quiet this time of year so I don't get to enjoy the songs.

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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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