Garden Birds – Trentham, Staffordshire, UK

When I was growing up in Ealing, West London, between the end of the Second World War and the early 1960s, despite living fairly close to Kew Gardens, farmland in the Green Belt and several parks, the birds that I was most familiar with were House Sparrows, Starlings, Black Headed Gulls and Feral Pigeons. These days I would be surprised to see sparrows or starlings in my garden in Trentham. Nonetheless, we do have many regular visitors and some interesting occasional guests. I hope that you enjoy looking at those pictured below.


Male Greater Spotted Woodpecker (the female is bigger and has a black cap)	Nuthatch

Male Blackbird	Female Blackbird

Blue Tit – back, whilst feeding	Blue Tit – front view (note eye stripe)

Great Tit – Front view (note chest stripe and black cap)	Great (to left of picture) & Blue Tit feeding together

Coal Tit – about the size of a Blue Tit but with a black cap which has a distinctive white stripe at its centre	Greenfinch

Dunnock – No relation to the house or tree sparrow	Chaffinch – one of the most common visitors to our garden but very camera-shy

This picture shows how well camouflaged chaffinch markings are when they are feeding surrounded by fallen leaves	In this picture, the bird on the left is a Dunnock and there is a Chaffinch on the right

Jackdaw – one member of an extended family who often feed as a group	Robin – a very territorial bird who does not like other robins to come into his garden

Wood Pigeon – the biggest of the pigeon family locally – note the distinctive white collar on the neck	Stock Dove – generally rarer & noticeably smaller than the wood pigeon

Ring Doves – much lighter in colour than the wood pigeon and stock dove – this pair are generally seen together	Our local ‘top predator’, a female sparrow hawk. Her favourite prey are pigeons