Best time to see: all year
Key facts
Swaggering, quarrelsome garden bird, now in serious decline across the whole of its range
Habitat: equally at home in garden, park, woodland and farmland
Widespread and common resident, joined in winter by visitors from Scandinavia
Recognition
Dark, glossy bird with yellow bill, 20–22cm; young are brownish until they grow their adult feathers
Often feed in flocks, probing the ground for their favourite food, leatherjackets; also eat fruit, bread and household scraps
Outside the breeding season, gather just before dusk in large numbers to roost (noisily) at favourite sites
Lifecycle
Untidy nest of grass in a hole in a tree or building, or in a nest box
Usually 2 broods of 5–7 pale blue eggs, April–May
Our birds fly south into Europe in winter and are replaced by others from northern and eastern Europe
© Alan Williams
© Robert Welham