What does a Blue Jay symbolize? The old records make the jaybird the devil's Friday errand-runner, with a few luck and rain omens; Native American stories make it a watcher and boaster; Thoreau and ...

Type your town or postcode to see the birds most likely near you this week, from birdwatchers' records across the UK, Ireland ...

Blue Jays eat nuts more than anything else, above all acorns, plus insects, corn and fruit, and a little of almost everything else. Here is what stomach studies found month by month, why jays are so ...

Why the Mourning Dove is called that, what American folk beliefs said about its call (rain, love, luck and death), its names in Cherokee, Navajo and Nahuatl, the doves of the Bible, and what modern ...

It depends which version you learned. In the lines known from the 1970s, eight is for a wish, nine for a kiss and ten for a bird not to be missed. 14 In the 1850s North of England version, eight was ...

Magpies build a big domed nest of sticks high in a tree, starting as early as December. In Britain the first eggs are laid around 22 April: usually 5 or 6 pale blue-green eggs, incubated by the female ...

In open country with trees. Red Kites live where woods or copses mix with farmland, pasture or heath: they nest and roost in the trees and forage over the open ground. In winter they spread into more ...

A Goldcrest's song is a very high, thin run of notes rocking between a higher and a lower pitch, ending in a short flourish; the calls are thin and high. Listen to recordings from Britain, see them as ...

Those familiar with the fairytale “The Ugly Duckling” by Hans Christian Andersen may remember how the ‘ugly duckling’ in the story was actually a baby swan and not a duckling at all! In real life, ...

Both the Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) of the United Kingdom and the American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) are widespread raptors of the Falco genus. These small birds of prey are the best known of about ...

Penguins are amongst the most social and gregarious of all birds. In fact, every species of penguin is colonial, and all but two species form large collectivised colonies of thousands - or even ...

The iconic Bald eagle has been the national bird of the United States since 1782. A powerful and impressive bird with a snowy white-feathered head, Bald eagles are unmistakable creatures. Like most ...