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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Green Woodpecker (Eurasian)

(C) Charles J Sharp (shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license)

 

Scientific Name: Picus viridis

Appearance: Large woodpecker, often encountered on the ground. Large, dagger-like beak. Vivid red cap, black around pale-coloured eye, and pale green ‘cheeks’. Male has black ‘moustache’ with a red centre, all-black in female. Upperparts apple-green. Underparts yellowish. White-barred, dark grey wing-tips and bright yellow-green rump obvious in flight.

Song: Most commonly heard call is raucous, slightly descending territorial ‘yaffle’. May be likened to some raptor calls.

When heard: Resident. ‘Yaffle’ call peaks February through April. Quieter outside of this period, but may be heard year-round.

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