Field guide to the most commonly encountered mammals and birds

Here, we provide some basic information regarding commonly observed species (plus some others about which we have had queries).  

Feel free to contact us by email if you have any questions regarding species you have encountered on the site.

For more information about mammals, we recommend the Mammal Society's species hub, here. For birds, excellent resources are available from the RSPB (here) and the BTO (here).

 

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Chaffinch (Common)

(C) clwhjsxy49 (shared under a CC BY-ND 2.0 license)

 

Scientific Name: Fringilla coelebs

Appearance: Sexes differ. Male: blue-grey head and bill, with brown-pink cheeks and throat. Upperparts brown, with greenish rump. Underparts rufous-pink. Female: head and upperparts light buffish-brown, and pale greyish underside. White on outer tail feathers and prominent double white wing-bar similar in both sexes.

Song: Cheerful, rattled, gradually descending phrase with a terminal flourish. Song bouts consist of similar phrases repeated at regular intervals.

When heard: Resident. Males begin singing by end of February and continue to the end of the breeding season in July.

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