A Magical Birdwatcher's View of British Birds Quiz

Answer: seeds and grains

Although wood pigeons will also eat nuts and fruit occasionally, it is seeds and grains that comprise most of their diet. Because of this their water intake, unlike that of birds which eat moisture-rich foods such as worms, is low. If you have a pond in your garden this will be a bonus for them as they will welcome a drink. They also seem particularly partial to tender young shoots - I have personal experience that they can shred new leaves from a lilac in a very short space of time!

Wood pigeons belong to the Columbidae family, which also includes doves. They are easy to identify from their characteristic cooing noise even if the bird itself is hidden. According to the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), there are over five million breeding pairs of wood pigeons in the UK. They are one of the UK's commonest birds and have a varied habitat. As their name suggests, they do indeed live in woodland and forests, although they are equally at home in towns and cities.

Answer: dusk and night time, in the countryside

Although barn owls in the UK might occasionally hunt during daylight hours, they are normally more active at night time, so the best time to catch sight of them is at dusk and throughout the night.

The barn owl is a carnivorous bird, thus its diet is mice and other small mammals such as voles and shrews, along with perhaps the occasional frog, toad or lizard. They belong to the Tytonidae family in the Strigiformes order of birds. As well as having a strong beak and formidable talons, they have excellent hearing and are virtually soundless in flight, so are able to hover over the prey they have located before swooping down to seize it. Barn owls are more commonly seen over open countryside, and are rarely seen in an urban setting, unless it is close to woods or open grassland. They are often actively encouraged by farmers, who will put up nesting boxes for them as they value their rodent-catching skills around barns and crops.

Answer: insects and spiders

With the Latin name Troglodytes troglodytes, meaning 'cave dweller', the wren is adept at finding its favourite food of insects and spiders in crevices in and around the garden. One of the UK's smallest birds, it is often mistakenly considered the smallest, but that honour is contested between the goldcrest and the firecrest. The wren, however, is not much larger.

Like many small birds, wrens can have a hard time during a harsh winter. As the insects and spiders they feed on will be scarce, they will particularly appreciate some dried insect mix on your bird table, of which there are many brands available.

For all its tiny stature, the wren has one of the loudest voices per size of all birds. They are found throughout the country in a variety of habitats including woodland, open moorland and coastal areas and of course can often be seen in your own garden.

The pre-decimal coin the farthing, which was worth a quarter of a penny, featured a wren on its reverse from 1937, superseding the image of Britannia.

Answer: omnivorous

A frequent visitor to many British gardens, magpies are true omnivores and scavengers. They can be highly aggressive, chasing smaller (and larger!) birds away from food sources, and sometimes even eating eggs laid by other birds. There are several different species of magpie around the world. The bird pictured is the Eurasian magpie which is, as its name suggests, found across European and Asian countries, and also to a lesser extent in northwest Africa.

Magpies have been much maligned for their reputation of stealing shiny, glittering items such as jewellery. Although there are indeed some documented cases of their ring-pilfering prowess, recent thought is that they are actually afraid of such items! Magpies are highly intelligent birds and research shows they can even recognise their own reflection.

One for sorrow, two for joy... the magpie is the subject of various versions of a children's nursery rhyme. There used to be a children's television programme called 'Magpie' from 1968 to 1980 on ITV which featured the rhyme, put to music, as its signature tune.

Answer: Scotland

The golden eagle is the second-largest bird of prey in the UK, second only to the white-tailed eagle. It is found in many countries across the world, but its common habitat in the UK is the Scottish Highlands, where it favours open moorland, glens and mountainous areas. It is estimated by the RSPB that there are in the region of 440 breeding pairs in the UK.

The golden eagle belongs to the Accipitridae family, which includes hawks, kites and buzzards. Its diet consists of mammals including rabbits and squirrels, and also other birds. It has among the best eyesight in the animal kingdom, thus giving rise to the expression 'eagle-eyed', referring to a sharp-eyed person.

Answer: coastal areas

Pied avocets are wading birds and can be seen in England more during the summer months, where they are most likely to be found on mudflats along the east coast. Many migrate to warmer climes in Europe or Africa for the winter, although some remain in England, on the warmer southwest coast. Their diet consists of crustaceans, insects and worms. A distinctive feature is their upturned beak; this is noted in their name, Recurvirostra avosetta, recurvus being the Latin name for 'curved backwards'. This beak, used in an unusual sideways motion through the sand or mudflats, is most useful for the avocet in locating its food.

Breeding pairs of pied avocets had become extinct in England in the mid-19th century, but, thanks to the RSPB's conservation efforts, their numbers have steadily increased and they are flourishing again.

The pied avocet is the emblem of the RSPB. The organisation, which has its headquarters in Bedfordshire, was founded in 1889 under the charming name of the 'Plumage League'. It was originally set up as a protest group campaigning against the use of feathers in the fashionable clothing of the times. Nowadays the Society has many local groups all over the country as well as several nature reserves.

Answer: black plumage with a yellow bill

As well as its characteristic black plumage and bright yellow bill, the male blackbird, unlike its female counterpart, also has a distinctive yellow ring around each eye. With an estimated five million plus breeding pairs nationwide, the blackbird is one of the UK's most prolific birds. They can be found in most settings and are equally at home in open countryside or built-up areas. A popular resident of many gardens, they will appreciate a feast of berries left available to them in addition to their diet of worms, snails and insects.

The blackbird has a very melodious voice. It is featured in the old nursery rhyme 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' which refers to blackbirds being baked in a pie, and flying out, alive and singing, when the pie was cut open. Not a nice thought at all, but it is believed to be an explanation for the 'blackbird' pie funnel, often used in baking a pie as an air vent, to aid cooking by releasing the steam.

Answer: True

It certainly is a good idea, and you can then enjoy your birdwatching hobby from the comfort of your own home! Blue tits won't turn up their dainty little beaks at a nice nesting box in which to raise their family in spring, and will reward you time and again. A little care in selecting a place for the box, which should ideally be in a quiet part of the garden, will pay dividends and enchant you throughout the spring as you observe the parents feeding their chicks and then see the small birds experimenting with their first flights.

A small nesting box is all they will need, with a hole around an inch (25mm) in diameter, firmly secured up to five metres from the ground and easily accessible to the parent birds. Blue tits will make themselves useful in the garden too, as they will eat caterpillars and insects as well as the seeds and other goodies you put out on the bird table.

Answer: v-shaped

Interestingly, there are three collective nouns for geese, depending on what they are doing! On the ground a group can be referred to as either a gaggle or a flock, but in flight the word is skein. The geese swimming in the photo are Greylag geese (Anser anser). They are quite large birds, weighing around seven pounds on average.

The V-formation of a skein of flying geese is used to conserve energy, as it reduces wind resistance. When the lead bird gets tired from being in front it will drop back and another lead bird will take over.

Geese tend to mate for life and are herbivorous. They are excellent parents and will defend their chicks fiercely against predators. They also make good guard animals.

Answer: insects

The robin pictured is the one which is resident in the UK, the European robin, which differs considerably in appearance from the larger American robin, although both belong to the order Passeriformes.

The robin is a common resident in British gardens, and whilst the majority of its diet consists of insects, it is also partial to the occasional worm. They are quite confident around people and are not averse to perching on a fork handle nearby in the hope that a friendly gardener may throw them a worm or unearth some insects for them to feed on.

For small birds, robins are very territorial and will often chase off larger birds. Male and female robins are identical in appearance; the chicks' red breasts appear when they are mature, having started off a spotted brown.

Like the wren above, robins can suffer in a severe winter when their preferred food is not so plentiful. They will love dried mealworms and insects, and other foods such as suet treats to help them through the harshest months.