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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Pied Flycatcher (European)

(C) EdwynAnderton (shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license)

 

Scientific Name: Ficedula hypoleuca

Appearance: Similar in size to robin. Sexes differ. Male: Striking black and white plumage. Black head with white patch on forehead, often divided into two spots. Upperparts black. Underparts pure white. Bold white wing patch contrasts with blackish wings. Tail black, often with white sides. Female: brown above with slight greyish tinge. Buffish-white throat and underparts. White wing patch on brown wings.

Song: Brief, fairly simple, sweet-sounding musical phrase, consisting of few well-defined syllables, with a hesitant 'stop/start' feel. Song bouts consist of similarly constructed but not identical phrases, repeated at regular intervals.

When heard: Summer migrant. Relatively short singing period commences on arrival of males in mid- to late-April through to the end of nesting in July.

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