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Gadwall

This very grey-coloured dabbling duck, a little smaller than the mallard, and with an obvious black rear end. It shows a white wing patch in flight. When seen close up the grey colour is made up of ... More...

Gadwalls (illustration)

Gannet

Adults are large and bright white with black wingtips. They are distinctively shaped with a long neck and long pointed beak, long pointed tail, and long pointed wings. At sea they flap and then glide ... More...

Gannet (artwork)

Garden warbler

A very plain warbler with no distinguishing features (a feature in itself!). It spends a lot of its time in the cover of trees and bushes and can be more difficult to see than its relative, the black... More...

Garden warbler (illustration)

Garganey

The garganey is a scarce and very secretive breeding duck in the UK. It is smaller than a mallard and slightly bigger than a teal. The male is most easily recognised with a broad white stripe over th... More...

Male garganey (artwork)

Glaucous gull

A large pale gull with white wing tips. Younger birds are creamy white or more biscuit coloured, depending on age. All have pale wingtips. It is bigger than a herring gull and bulkier, with a fiercer ... More...

Illustration of 1st winter glaucous gull

Goldcrest

The goldcrest is the UK's smallest songbird and is dull green above and buff white below with a distinctive orange or yellow crown stripe. It is a widespread species, closely associated with coniferou... More...

Goldcrest (illustration)

Golden eagle

A huge bird of prey, with only the white-tailed eagle larger in the UK. With its long broad wings and longish tail, it has a different outline to the smaller buzzard. It likes to soar and glide on air... More...

Golden eagle (illustration)

Golden oriole

Blackbird-sized the male has an unmistakable bright yellow body with black wings. A secretive bird which keeps to the high tree canopy, it can be heard, most often at dawn, giving its distinctive flu... More...

Golden oriole (illustration)

Golden pheasant

Smaller than a pheasant, the male is very brightly coloured with a yellow crown and lower back, dark wings and upper neck, red underparts and long finely barred tail. female is paler brown than a fem... More...

Golden pheasant (illustration)

Golden plover

A medium-sized plover with a distinctive gold and black summer plumage. In winter the black in replaced by buff and white. They typically stand upright and run in short bursts. Very wary on the bre... More...

Golden plover in summer plumage (illustration)

Goldeneye

A medium sized diving duck. Males look black and white with a greenish black head and a circular white patch in front of the yellow eye. Females are smaller, and are mottled grey with a chocolate bro... More...

Goldeneyes (illustration)

Goldfinch

A highly coloured finch with a bright red face and yellow wing patch. Sociable, often breeding in loose colonies, they have a delightful liquid twittering song and call. Their long fine beaks allow ... More...

Goldfinch (illustration)

Goosander

These handsome diving ducks are a member of the sawbill family, so called because of their long, serrated bills, used for catching fish. A largely freshwater bird, the goosander first bred in the UK i... More...

Goosander (illustration)

Goshawk

A large hawk, almost reaching buzzard size. When seen close to it has a fierce expression with bright red eyes and a distinctive white eyebrow. Its broad wings enable it to hunt at high speed, weavi... More...

Goshawk - male

Grasshopper warbler

The high, insect-like reeling song of the grasshopper warbler is the best clue to its presence. Even when you hear one it can be difficult to locate it due to the ventriloquial effect of its singing. ... More...

Grasshopper warbler

Great black-backed gull

A very large, thick-set black-backed gull, with a powerful beak. Adults are blacker than the smaller lesser black-backed gull. It has a heavy flight and can look quite hunched when perched. It will f... More...

Great black-backed gull (illustration)

Great crested grebe

A delightfully elegant waterbird with ornate head plumes which led to its being hunted for its feathers, almost leading to its extermination from the UK. They dive to feed and also to escape, preferri... More...

Great crested grebes (illustration)

Great northern diver

The largest of the UK's divers, it has a bigger, heavier head and bill than its commoner relatives. It is largely a winter visitor to our shores although some non-breeding birds stay off northern coa... More...

Great northern diver (illustration)

Great grey shrike

The great grey shrike is the largest of the European shrikes. Small numbers come to the UK in autumn and spend the winter here. They are very territorial so you're unlikely to see more than one at onc... More...

Great grey shrike

Great shearwater

A large shearwater, about the same size as a fulmar. It has dark grey-brown upperparts and pale underparts with a distinctive dark cap and pale neck, as well as dark underwing edges.... More...

Great shearwater (illustration)

Great skua

The great skua is an aggressive pirate of the seas, deliberately harrassing birds as large as gannets to steal a free meal. It also readily kills and eats smaller birds such as puffins. Great skuas sh... More...

Great skua (illustration)

Great spotted woodpecker

About blackbird-sized and striking black-and-white. It has a very distinctive bouncing flight and spends most of its time clinging to tree trunks and branches, often trying to hide on the side away fr... More...

Great spotted woodpecker (illustration)

Great tit

The largest UK tit - green and yellow with a striking glossy black head with white cheeks and a distinctive two-syllable song. It is a woodland bird which has readily adapted to man-made habitats to ... More...

Great tit (illustration)

Great white egret

As the name suggests, a large, white heron. Great white egrets can look similar to little egrets, but they are much larger -the same size as the familiar grey heron. Other identification features to l... More...

Great white egret

Green sandpiper

A very contrasting wader which looks like a large house martin in flight. Its dark, almost black upperparts, pale underparts and white rump are distinctive. It frequently bobs up and down when stan... More...

Green sandpiper (illustration)

Green woodpecker

The green woodpecker is the largest of the three woodpeckers that breed in Britain. It has a heavy-looking body, short tail and a strong, long bill. It is greeny-grey on its upperparts with a bright g... More...

Green woodpecker (illustration)

Greenfinch

Its twittering and wheezing song, and flash of yellow and green as it flies, make this finch a truly colourful character. Nesting in a garden conifer, or feasting on black sunflower seeds, it is a pop... More...

Greenfinch (illustration)

Greenshank

A medium-sized slim wader with a dark grey back and white underparts. Its long green legs and slightly up-turned bill help to distinguish it from other waders. It calls regularly and is seen singly an... More...

Greenshank (illustration)

Grey heron

The largest European heron. It can stand with neck stretched out, looking for food, or hunch down with its neck bent over its chest. In flight it holds its neck retracted and has large rounded wings. ... More...

grey heron illustration

Grey partridge

A medium-sized, plump gamebird with a distinctive orange face. Flies with whirring wings and occasional glides, showing a chestnut tail. It is strictly a ground bird, never likely to be found in pear ... More...

Grey partridge (illustration)

Grey phalarope

This Arctic-breeding wader sometimes comes to the coasts of the UK after storms. They are most often seen at the coast; around 200 birds per year are seen. Like the other phalarope species, the female... More...

Grey phalarope

Grey plover

In summer it has silver and black spotted upperparts, a black face, neck and belly and in winter, it loses the black feathers and takes on a browny-grey look. In both plumages, the rump is white and i... More...

Grey plover in winter plumage (illustration)

Grey wagtail

The grey wagtail is more colourful than its name suggests with slate grey upper parts and distinctive lemon yellow under-tail. Its tail is noticeably longer than those of pied and yellow wagtails. The... More...

Male grey wagtail

Greylag goose

The ancestor of most domestic geese, the greylag is the largest and bulkiest of the wild geese native to the UK and Europe. In many parts of the UK it has been re-established by releasing birds in sui... More...

Greylag goose (illustration)

Guillemot

The UK's coasts have many stretches of sheer cliffs where seabirds breed and the guillemot is one of the most numerous birds in the great 'seabird cities'. It comes to land only to nest, spending the ... More...

Guillemot (illustration)