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Birds and wildlife
There are over 500 aphid species in the UK, and several are common garden pests. Typically they have pear-shaped bodies and range in colour from black to pink, though most are green or brown. More...
Badgers are stocky, with short legs and silvery-grey fur. They have very distinctive black and white markings on their faces. More...
Ants are social insects; they live in colonies that consist mainly of workers – sterile, wingless females. More...
These large, hairy bees are generally black with varying degrees of yellow banding. Look closely at flowering plants and you’ll probably spot several species. More...
Cinnabar moths can be found throughout Britain, except northern Scotland, and can be easily spotted because of its bright red and black colouration. More...
When threatened, attacked or overturned, these beetles can flick themselves into the air emitting an audible click – hence their name. More...
This familiar beetle has a black thorax, rusty brown elytra (wing cases) and brown legs. It has characteristic antennae that fan out, and are often seen on May evenings buzzing around the garden. More...
Male common blues have pale violet-blue upper wings with grey-beige undersides. However, females vary from those with predominantly brown upper wings and orange crescents, usually more common in the south, to those with more blue, found farther north and west. More...
Common blue damselflies are common throughout Britain. The male has a blue abdomen with black spots; the female, a yellow or bluish abdomen with variable dark markings. More...
Common frogs are widespread in mainland Britain. They have smooth skin that varies in colour from grey, olive green and yellow to brown, which they are able to lighten or darken to match their surroundings. More...
Common newts are olive green or pale brown with a bright orange, black spotted underside. In the breeding season males develop a wavy crest from their heads to their tails, and entice females by wafting a glandular secretion. More...
Common toads have broad, squat bodies and warty skin, and tend to walk rather than hop. These toads are widespread and common in mainland Britain. More...
Also known as a daddy longlegs, this slender, long-legged fly is grey-brown with dark brown leading edges to its wings. More...
The Devil’s coach horse is a long, black beetle with short elytra (wing cases), which at first glance you could mistake for an earwig. More...
Earthworms are made up of many ridged segments. They are covered in minute hairs, which allow them to grip the soil and move. They are vital in maintaining soil structure and fertility as they aerate the soil. More...
Earwigs can be most easily recognised by the characteristic pincers at the hind end of their bodies. More...
The fox has reddish-brown fur, a white chest and a bushy, white-tipped tail, called a brush. Foxes are widespread and quite common throughout Britain, and a surprising number live in towns. More...
Froghoppers are small, brown insects that can jump great distances if threatened. Their larvae are more commonly seen coated in a mass of froth – or cuckoo spit – on plant stems. More...
Widespread and common throughout the UK, garden snails have pale grey, moist skin and a large, brown or yellowish shell with paler flecking and darker, spiraling bands. More...
Although varying in colour from pale yellowy-brown to very dark brown, garden spiders all have a characteristic white cross-shaped group of spots on their abdomen, and spin orb webs to catch their prey. More...
The garden tiger is a widespread species and can be found throughout the UK, however numbers have decreased in recent years. It is a stout and hairy moth with chocolatey-brown forewings, and hindwings that are orangey-red with black spots. More...
This flat, shield-shaped bug is bright green and stippled with tiny black dots in spring and summer, but changes to greeny-bronze in autumn. Green shield bugs are common throughout England and Wales, but less so in Scotland. More...
Originally from North America, grey squirrels were released in the UK by 19th century landowners, and are now very common and widespread. They can often be seen sitting upright with their large bushy tails arched over their backs. More...
Harvestmen are closely related to spiders. But, unlike the spiders, it has no silk glands so is not able to spin a web, does not have fangs nor does it produce venom. More...
Hedgehogs have a rather rounded body covered in short, dark, yellow-tipped spines, and a short tail. They come out at night and can be heard snuffling and grunting as they forage for food. More...
Male holly blues have sky-blue upper wings with narrow, black borders, whereas females have broad, dull black borders. In both sexes the under wings are palest blue, almost white, with black spots. More...
Honey bees make honey from pollen and nectar collected from flowers. They live in large colonies with one queen, many sterile females workers and some male drones. In the wild honey bees nest in hollow trees. More...
The largest of the British social wasps hornets appear very similar to common wasps, but are larger and coloured chestnut-brown (rather than black) and yellow. More...
Apart from humans, this tiny rodent with greyish fur, large ears, a pointed snout and a long, scaly tail is probably the commonest mammal in the UK. More...
Although these brightly-coloured insects look like bees or wasps, hoverflies are in fact true flies and do not sting. More...
The hummingbird hawk moth is hairy with a dark, white-spotted abdomen, mousey-grey forewings and golden-orange hindwings. Easily mistaken for a hummingbird as it hovers, probing flowers for nectar, it is in fact smaller than any hummingbird. More...
This carnivorous, aphid juice-sucking insect gets it name from its two semi-transparent pairs of wings, covered in a network of veins. More...
Named after the Virgin Mary, this brightly-coloured beetle is well known as the 'gardeners' friend', as it feasts on aphids. More...
The large red is the first damselfly to be seen in spring, and can be found on almost any habitat near water. More...
Common throughout Britain, large white butterflies have white wings with broad black tips on the forewings. Females also have two black spots and a black streak on each wing. Males have no spots on the upperside, but two black spots on the underside. More...
This very pretty moth has variable black and white patterned wings with a yellowy-orange stripe in the middle of its forewings and near its head. More...
With a rounded body, velvety, grey-black fur, spade-like front claws, a short, furry tail, tiny eyes and a pink, pointed snout moles are very distinctive. More...
Orange-tips are common throughout lowland England and Wales, but are rarer in Scotland. The orange tips warn predators that this butterfly is highly distasteful. More...
Painted lady butterflies have a pale buffy-orange background colour to the upper wings. They do not hibernate in Britain; instead they migrate to and from northern Africa arriving in late May and June. More...
The peacock butterfly has brownish-red wings, each with a single, large peacock-feather-like eyespot – used to scare predators. More...
Pipistrelles are tiny bats with reddish-brown coats and blackish-brown ears, nose and wing membranes. More...
Pond skaters have thin, brownish-grey bodies and small heads with large eyes. Using a rowing action the middle pair of legs propel them forwards, often at great speed, across a pond’s surface. More...
Rabbits are not native to Britain; the Normans brought them here in the 12th century for their, then much-prized, fur and meat. Today, they are among our commonest and most widespread mammals. More...
Red admirals have dark black-brown wings, each with an orange-red band. The forewing tips are black with white spots; the underside is orange, blue and white, while the hindwings are camouflaged dark brown. More...
Silver y moths vary in colour from purple-grey to almost black, but they all have the characteristic ‘y’ mark on each forewing. More...
These legless lizards with long, smooth, shiny, grey or brown bodies, look very similar to tiny snakes. More...
Slugs are similar to snails, but they have no shell. Instead they have a horny plate concealed under the mantle or saddle. More...
The small tortoiseshell is bright orange and black with a row of blue crescents around the wing edges. Adults emerge from hibernation on the first warm spring days and look for mates. More...
Speckled woods have brown wings with creamy-yellow spots; there is one black and white eyespot on the forewing and three on the hind. The undersides are patterned orange, yellow and brown. More...
This large, shiny, black beetle has violet edges to its smooth, oval elytra (wing cases) and thorax. Although they do not fly, they are fast runners! More...
Wasps are sociable insects, living in colonies of up to 10,000 workers. They build their paper nests in disused animal burrows or in cavities in trees or buildings. More...
This brown bug spends most of its time at the bottom of weedy ponds, lakes and slow-flowing rivers, coming to the surface only to renew its air supply. More...
