Weighing Up British Birds Trivia Quiz

The goldcrest is a tiny bird and classed as the smallest in Britain. Its relative, the firecrest, is very similar in size. The bird has feathers of a drab brown with a tinge of green but the name derives from the bright yellow stripe, surrounded by black feathers, on its head.

The birds weigh around six grams, equivalent to about one fifth of an ounce.

Spotting a wren in your garden is far more likely than seeing a goldcrest as they are regular visitors. Although they are small and brown, the distinctive upright tail makes them stand out as they scurry around the borders looking for insects and spiders to eat.

Lengthwise, they are similar in size to the goldcrest but they are heavier with an average weight of about nine grams, or about a third of an ounce.

This is the largest of the tits found in Britain and another regular visitor to gardens, especially when food is put out to attract birds. It is, as the name implies, larger than the related blue tit and has no blue colouring. The breast feathers are greenish yellow and the bird has a glossy black head. The main distinguishing feature is the black stripe down the front of the body, more prominent in males.

Great tits weigh in at around eighteen grams or 0.6 of an ounce.

You can see this bird regularly too. The male has totally black plumage with a yellow beak while the female has brown feathers with a speckled breast. She looks similar to a thrush, but doesn't have the pale breast that distinguishes the thrush.

Blackbirds weigh in the range of 80 to 100 grams, equivalent to about three to three and a half ounces.

Another step up in size brings us to the jay, the most colourful member of the crow family. These birds do come to gardens - I regularly see one and on rarer occasions a pair. Their colouring is a pale brown back with a white rump. The main way to identify them, though, is the flash of blue and white feathers on the wings.

On the weight scale, jays come in in the range of 140 to 190 grams which is around five to seven ounces.

This is the last of the birds covered in the quiz which you are likely to see in a garden. The wood pigeon is the largest of the British species of the breed and is a chunky looking bird with grey feathers. It has a white patch on its neck and is often seen in groups. They don't seem to be the smartest of birds, spending so much time chasing each other away from food that none of them gets to eat.

The weight range for this common pigeon is from 480 to 550 grams, equivalent to between 17 to 20 ounces.

The chances of seeing a peregrine falcon in your garden are slim, although city dwellers might have a chance as the birds have adapted well to city life. They nest on cliffs and rocky ledges and window sills in high rise city blocks make a good substitute. Known for its speed when diving, known as a stoop, peregrines prey on medium sized birds, such as pigeons.

The female is larger than the male with a weight range of 800 grams to 1.5 kilograms, or 28 to 50 ounces.

We're heading into the realms of some of the larger birds now, with the grey heron being a tall bird with long legs, a long beak and often seen near water. They feed primarily on fish but will also look for rodents and small birds, including ducklings. As you'd expect, their feathers are primarily grey with black and white around the neck and head.

Weight-wise, they come in at anything between 1500 and 2000 grams, equivalent to just over three pounds and up to four and a half pounds.

If you thought the grey heron was big, you need to meet the crane, although this might be difficult as numbers are dwindling both in the UK and across Europe. The crane has grey feathers, but they are much lighter than those of the heron. Cranes also have brown feathers around the edges of their wings and tails.

The crane also weighs more than twice as much as the heron, ranging from four to seven kilograms, which is eight to fifteen pounds, approximately.

This is Britain's largest and heaviest swan and a year round resident, although some move to other regions and others arrive just to spend the winter in the UK. These swans have white feathers, long necks and orange beaks with a black base and a distinctive black bump. Despite their bulk, they are graceful flyers with their long necks stretched out in front of their bodies.

They weigh anything from ten to twelve kilograms, easily the heaviest of the birds in the quiz. This equates to twenty-two to twenty-six pounds.