Garden Birds – Trentham, Staffordshire, UK

When I was growing up in Ealing, West London, between the end of the Second World War and the early 1960s, despite living fairly close to Kew Gardens, farmland in the Green Belt and several parks, the birds that I was most familiar with were House Sparrows, Starlings, Black Headed Gulls and Feral Pigeons. These days I would be surprised to see any of these species in my garden in Trentham. Nonetheless, we do have many regular visitors and some interesting occasional guests. I hope that you enjoy looking at those pictured below.

Male Greater Spotted Woodpecker (the female is bigger and has a black cap)	Nuthatch
Male Blackbird	Female Blackbird
Blue Tit – back, whilst feeding	Blue Tit – front view (note eye stripe)
Great Tit – Front view (note chest stripe and black cap)	Great (to left of picture) & Blue Tit feeding together
Coal Tit – about the size of a Blue Tit but with a black cap which has a distinctive white stripe at its centre	Greenfinch
Dunnock – No relation to the house or tree sparrow	Chaffinch – one of the most common visitors to our garden but very camera-shy
This picture shows how well camouflaged chaffinch markings are when they are feeding surrounded by fallen leaves	In this picture, the bird on the left is a Dunnock and there is a Chaffinch on the right
Jackdaw – one member of an extended family who often feed as a group	Robin – a very territorial bird who does not like other robins to come into his garden
Wood Pigeon – the biggest of the pigeon family locally – note the distinctive white collar on the neck	Stock Dove – generally rarer & noticeably smaller than the wood pigeon
Ring Doves – much lighter in colour than the wood pigeon and stock dove – this pair are generally seen together	Peacock and hens – Yes this was a one-off visitation several years ago but well worth including

Front Page | Home Page for individuals | Business Services Index | Site contents & internal links | Email the Author