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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Cuckoo (Common)

(C) creepanta (shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license)

 

Scientific Name: Cuculus canorus

Appearance: Fairly large size, with long, pointed wings and long, wedge-shaped tail. Short, thick, curved bill. Male: slate grey head, chin and throat, extending down breast. Medium grey upperparts. White underside with grey barring. Female: two colour morphs. Grey morph as male. Rarer rufous morph, upperparts rich rufous-cinnamon with well-spaced greyish-black barring, similar to juvenile.

Song: Males produce familiar loud, clear cuc-coo, sometimes cuc-cuc-coo. May be confused with collared dove, but syllables more sharply defined. Females produce less-frequently heard rich, throaty bubble.

When heard: Summer migrant. Males call upon arrival from mid- to late-April. Female bubbling calls produced slightly later during egg-laying period. Very short vocalisation period ends with departure as early as June.

Example:

Male:

Female:

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