Let’s Get to Know England’s Woodland Birds!
Woodland birds in England aren’t only the ones deep in the trees. A woodland bird is any species that feeds, nests, or shelters in the wood’s layered rooms: the canopy, the understorey, and the ground. Woods matter because they offer all three at once, plus old holes, deadwood, and quiet corners.
Our Woodland Birds is a lovely illustrated guide to meet more of England’s woodland birds, taking us into forests to meet them all! Even if you don’t see them, woodland birds are having a fabulous time amid the trees! They rely on mature trees and dead wood, reasons why it’s important to save our forests.
Even ‘dead trees’ are not really dead, as rotten bark provides good hunting ground for food (and a place for nests). And when birds abandon them after rearing chicks, the tree holes are often used by bats, owls and bees.
Although woodland birds rarely visit gardens, keep cats indoors at dawn and dusk (when birds are likely feeding) and avoid wooden bird feeders (cats can claw up them).
Read more on creating safe havens for birds, and how to stop birds flying into windows.
The birds featured in this book include:
- Goldfinch
- Bullfinch
- Crested tit
- Long-tailed tit
- Hobby
- Merlin
- Common buzzard
- Sparrowhawk
- Nuthatch and Treecreeper
- Wryneck
- Lesser-spotted woodpecker
- Pheasant & Golden pheasant
- Black grouse
- Goldeneye
- Moorhen
- Woodcock
- Whinchat
- Cirl bunting
- Woodlark
- Tree pipit
- Blue throat
- Black redstart
- Ring ouzel
- Fieldfare
- Waxwing
- Spotted flycatcher
- Great grey & red-backed shrike
- Tawny owls
- Jay
- Nutcracker
- Jackdaw
- Rookery
- Hooded crow
- Magpies
- Blue tit
- Redpoll
- Golden oriole
- Stock dove
- Black caps
- Heron
- Barn owl
- Robin
Some woods are now so deathly quiet that you could hear a pine needle drop. This is often due to the planting of fast-growing and often non-native pine and conifer trees.
They might be perfect for timber production and cash turnover, but not for our birds who need the insects, nesting places and ecosystems that thrive in mixed and broad-leaf forests.
Our once insect-rich summers are now a thing of the past, due to pesticides and intensive farming practices.
Matt Sewell is a talented artist and ornithologist, who has written several best-selling books on birds and other wildlife. His designs for birds are even on stamps sold on the Isle of Man.
Robins and wrens (small birds, big voices)
A robin often sings from an open perch, chest forward, as if it owns the path. Its song sounds sweet and flowing, with short phrases and pauses. Robins also follow gardeners and walkers because we disturb insects and worms. We turn the ground; they take the chance.
The wren is different. It’s tiny, brown, and round, with a cocked tail. It moves like a mouse through tangles, then suddenly fires out a loud, rapid song. If you hear a big sound from deep brambles, suspect a wren.
Blue, great and coal tits (woodland acrobats)
Blue tit is the bright one, with blue cap and wings and a yellow underside. Its call often sounds like a quick, thin “tsee-tsee”. Great tit is larger, with a black head and bib and a strong yellow chest. Many people remember its simple two-note phrase, like “teacher-teacher”.
Coal tit is smaller and more subtle. Look for the pale wing bar and the neat black cap. It often keeps to conifers at the woodland edge, but it mixes with others too.
Nuthatches and treecreepers
Nuthatch looks sturdy and confident, with a blue-grey back and a rusty belly. It can walk down a trunk as easily as up, which feels almost wrong the first time you see it. It also stores food, wedging seeds into bark crevices like a careful accountant.
Treecreeper, by contrast, is a master of disguise. It’s mottled brown, almost the colour of lichen. It usually starts low and spirals up the trunk, probing cracks with its curved bill. Then it flits to the base of the next tree and begins again. If you lose it, you’ve learned the point: camouflage is a woodland skill.
