Birds on your doorstep IDs

Illustrations and key facts to help you identify the birds living in your parks, gardens, and school grounds.

Wren

Manx: Drean

Size: 9-10cm

Song: Loud, explosive shrills, trills and rattles – more than 100 notes can be sung!

Fun fact: Males build five or six nests, and the female chooses the most cryptic/camouflaged.

Robin

Manx: Spittag

Size: 14cm

Song: A mix of high and low notes sung all year apart from late summer when feeding chicks.

Fun fact: Follow large mammals around, including humans, to catch the bugs they dig up.

House Sparrow

Manx: Sparroo

Size: 14-15cm

Song: One note repeated again and again – it sounds like it is counting.

Fun fact: Nicknamed ‘Tiger Bird’ because of the black stripes used for camouflage on its back.

Blue Tit

Manx: Kione gorrym

Size: 12cm

Song: High pitched and fast sequence of notes.

Fun fact: Their ten (average number) chicks each need to eat 100 caterpillars a day!

Great Tit

Manx: Myntan mooar

Size: 14cm

Song: Two loud, alternating notes that sound like ‘tea-cher tea-cher’.

Fun fact: The male has a wider black breast and belly stripe than the female.

Dunnock

Manx: Boght keeir

Size: 14cm

Song: Loud, high-pitched and squeaky. Females also sing to attract males.

Fun fact: Sometimes called a hedge sparrow but is not a Sparrow – it is a member of the Accentor Family.

Chaffinch

Manx: Ushag y choau

Size: 14.5cm

Song: Downward scale of notes ending in a flourish – sounds like ‘falling downstairs and sneezing’!

Fun fact: Female is brown for camouflage but with the same black and white wing pattern as the male.

Goldfinch

Manx: Lossey ny keylley

Size: 12cm
Song: A high-pitched and delightful twittering.
Fun fact: A group of Goldfinches is called a Charm.

Greenfinch

Manx: Corkan keylley glass

Size: 15cm

Song: Intermittent, wheezing whistles.

Fun fact: Males show-off their yellow and green feathers in display flights when breeding starts in March.

Blackbird

Manx: Lhondoo

Size: 24-25cm

Song: Melodious, fluty and mellow – one of the first to sing at dawn, and last to sing at dusk.

Fun fact: A member of the Thrush family but they also steal snails from Song Thrushes!

Song Thrush

Manx: Treshlen

Size: 23cm

Song: Loud, whistle-like phrases repeated two, three or more times from high tree-tops.

Fun fact: Bashes snails on rocks to break their shells and eat them.

Pied Wagtail

Manx: Ushag voltee

Size: 18cm

Song: Two notes repeated that sounds like ‘chis-ick chis-ick’.

Fun fact: Loves to live in urban areas and will even build nests in vehicles and machinery!

Starling

Manx: Trutlag

Size: 21cm

Song: Mix of whistles, warbles, rattles and chatters. Also mimics other birds and human alarms.

Fun fact: Dig up and eat Crane Fly larvae (which turn into Daddy Longlegs) from short grassland.

Woodpigeon

Manx: Calmane keylley

Size: 40-42cm
Song: Soft coo-ing that sounds like ‘take twooo cows taf-fy’.
Fun fact: Have a crop (sac-like structure near the throat) for storing food and producing ‘crop-milk’ for their chicks.

Sparrowhawk

Manx: Shirragh ny sperriu

Male pictured, female has a brown back, wings and tail

Size: 28-38cm

Call: Repeated, high-pitched ‘mewing’.

Fun fact: Females can be up to 25% larger than males and both will eat birds up to the size of a Woodpigeon.

House Martin

Manx: Gollan thie

Size: 12cm

Call: A continuous, bubbly whistling.

Fun fact: Use 1000 pieces of mud and saliva to build their nest under the eaves of buildings.

Swallow

Manx: Gollan geayee

Size: 17-19cm (includes tail streamers)

Call: A continuous twittering with trills, squeaks and clicks.

Fun fact: Nest inside buildings in farmyards and gardens and gather along telegraph lines to socialise.

Swift

Manx: Gollan mooar

Size: 16-17cm

Call: High-pitched whistles and screams.

Fun fact: One of the fastest birds in level flight (69mph) – they eat, drink, sleep and mate on the wing.

Moorhen

Manx: Kiark ushtey

Size: 32-35cm

Call: Intermittent and like a squeaky toy.

Fun fact: Flick tail to reveal a contrasting, white patch – showing predators they are healthy, alert and would be difficult to catch.

Mallard

Manx: Thunnag feie

Size: 51-62cm

Call: Females ‘quack’ 2-10 times, starting loud and getting softer. Males make a quiet rasping.

Fun fact: Females incubate the eggs and care for the ducklings.

Mute Swan

Manx: Ollay valloo

Size: 1.4-1.6m

Call: Snorting sound like a pig.

Fun fact: Largest and heaviest water bird in the British Isles – 2.2m wingspan and weighs 10kg.

© All illustrations copyright Mike Langman (rspb-images.com)

Clever Crows IDs

January 12th, 2026