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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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Nuthatch (Eurasian)
(C) hedera.baltica (shared under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license)
Scientific Name: Sitta europaea
Appearance: Intermediate in size between blue tit and great tit. Short tail, long, dagger-like bill. Black stripe through eye. Upperparts uniformly blue-grey. Underparts warm buff-brown, male with deep rufous-red on flanks. Wings relatively short and broad, dark- and blue-grey.
Song: Fast, low, rolling, clear trill, repeated at regular intervals.
When heard: Resident. Song described above can be heard from January through to the end of breeding in June. Rarely or intermittently heard throughout remainder of year.
Example: