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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Goldfinch (European)

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

 

Scientific Name: Carduelis carduelis

Appearance: Bold, black and white head with red face. Tawny-brown back. Tawny patch on either side of breast, extending down flanks. Underparts off-white. Broad yellow panel on black, white-tipped wings obvious in flight. Black tail with white spots on trailing half. Sharp, pale bill. Sexes alike.

Song: Sweet, musical and varied. Mixed 'tinkling' call-like notes and fluid trills.

When heard: Resident. Male song most intense during nest-building stage, which may occur two or three times in breeding season extending from late-March to end of August.

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