Although most of us are more familiar with garden birds, our woods house many more bird feathered friends. They like to take advantage of natural shelter and lots of tasty insects that are often within leaf litter. Woodland trees also provide many natural food like berries, and ideal places to build nests and raise their chicks. But we have now lost most of our woodland (many trees have been felled for the disastrous HS2 high-speed rail project) and other trees and woodlands have been killed off to make way for new housing, railways and roads). Also read about our drilling and drumming woodpeckers!
Read Matt Sewell’s delightful guide to Our Woodland Birds which takes us into forests, copses and wastelands to meet bramble-picking blue tits, a flight of finches and a parliament of young owls.
A few of our most common woodland birds include:
- Blackcaps often forage for insects in coniferous woodland
- Nightingales are known for their beautiful song
- Tawny owls are nocturnal, so not easy to spot
- Treecreepers like to eat insects & spiders in trees
- Wood warblers migrate to England in summer
- Nightjars easily camouflage themselves in trees
about the author
Matt Sewell is one of England’s best-selling bird book writers. A talented artist, he is also a passionate ornithologist, and his bird images appear on postage stamps on the Isle of Man.
