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Puffin Peregrine Falcon Crossbill Great Spotted Woodpecker Fly to The

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Puffin Peregrine Falcon Crossbill Great Spotted Woodpecker Fly to The Fly to the rescue All kinds of birds can be found flying around the British Isles’ skies. Many Peregrine are here all year round, while others just pay us a summer visit. But, sadly, Falcon there are fewer and fewer of some of Whoosh! The peregrine falcon is the planet’s our favourite feathered friends… fastest bird, reaching speeds of up to 400kmph when it dives to catch prey - which includes other birds! Nesting mainly in coastal cliffs, it has White tailed also started to make its home on top of tall city eagle buildings, too. Our biggest bird of This bird of prey was seriously endangered prey lives in the north- because of hunters and the widespread use of west of Scotland. But Meet the brilliant birds of the pesticides. But, luckily, its numbers are on we’re seeing less and Huge the up, thanks to legal protection and less of the white tailed hunter British Isles It’s not sunburn safer pesticides, and there are now eagle, as its nest is a - the puffin’s about 1,500 breeding pairs in beak always target for egg collectors who keep turns red in the the British Isles. Yay! its eggs as trophies. So now, when From the fastest flyer in the world, to summer! the RSPB finds a new nest, they make a species found nowhere else on the The peregrine is so swift, it can sure to keep it a secret. Shhh! planet, the British Isles are home to snatch its prey mid-air! more than 280 types of birds, both great and small. And at times, our skies are alive with up Corn bunting to 600 different species, thanks to the visitors This ‘fat bird of the that fly here from far and wide, including the barley’ has dived in Arctic, Asia and Africa... numbers by more than 90% since Crossbill 1990. The corn The crossbill’s beak may look bent, but Barley bird bunting is suffering it’s actually evolved like that over time to as its hedgerow help it force open pine cones and tease the home is given over to crops. But some seeds out with its tongue. Clever! farmers are helping them by planting Puffin This large finch breeds in the Scottish There are more than 550,000 breeding pairs of more seeds in autumn, when it’s harder Highlands, the north Norfolk coast and the puffins around the British Isles over the summer for this barley-loving bird to find food! New Forest in south-west England, as well months, and “with its short legs, brightly coloured as parts of Ireland and Northern Ireland. beak and clown-like feet, the puffin is hard to miss,” Incredibly, the rare Scottish crossbill (see Dove in danger says Chris Packham, Vice President of the RSPB. Turtle the small picture, below right) is the The seabirds arrive on the west coast of Scotland, only species of bird in the British dove Western Ireland, North Wales, south-west England Isles that is found nowhere else Hunting and and north-easy England in April, forming huge The bendy-beaked in the world! intensive breeding colonies on coastal cliff tops. Some bird and its rare farming have colonies can be home to more than 200,000 birds! Scottish cousin meant the (right) Puffins lay their eggs in burrows dug into the soil, number of breeding pairs of turtle but they sometimes use empty rabbit burrows or DID YOU doves here has plummeted by 94% cavities in cliffs, too. Amazingly, each puffin returns KNOW...? in the last 20 years. Today, charities to the same burrow every year. Laying only a single are fighting to rescue these migratory egg, both puffin parents keep it warm for up to Puffins are a type of birds from the brink of extinction. 45 days by sitting on it – and once the chick has auk, medium-sized, Let’s hope they make a comeback! hatched, they share the feeding duties, too. short-winged, diving seabirds. Other auks Great spotted include guillemots Mega migration and razorbills. woodpecker EXTINCT… “Incredibly, puffins use their short wings to fly Ever heard a rapid ‘drum roll’ while in the underwater in search of fish. But having such short woods? Well, it was probably a great spotted Great auk The last of the great auks in the wings makes flying through the air a bit tricky - woodpecker, hammering away at a tree trunk! British Isles was caught they have to flap their wings really quickly to It does this for a number of reasons – from over 150 years ago in keep themselves up,” says Chris. The clever birds attracting mates, to digging for grubs, using Scotland, after being still manage to migrate thousands of kilometres its long sticky tongue to lick them out. Yum! mistaken for a witch! The to escape the winter cold, though - some making Making its home in trees across England, poor penguin was very it as far as Morocco in Africa! southern Scotland and Wales, the slow, making it easy prey noisy woodpecker is easy to spot, for hunters - which is thanks to its black and white why we can see so many stripes and of the tiny-winged birds Only the male woodpecker red tail. has a red patch on its head Amazing auk in museums today. All animals © Getty Images UK.
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