Field guide to the most commonly encountered mammals and birds

Here, we provide some basic information regarding commonly observed species (plus some others about which we have had queries).  

Feel free to contact us by email if you have any questions regarding species you have encountered on the site.

For more information about mammals, we recommend the Mammal Society's species hub, here, and MammalNet here. For birds, excellent resources are available from the RSPB (here) and the BTO (here).

 

Common UK Mammals All UK Mammals Common UK Birds All Species All Deer

Yellowhammer

(C) fveronesi1 (shared under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license)

 

Scientific Name: Emberiza citrinella

Appearance: Head yellow with dusky stripes. Black and rufous streaks on buff-coloured back. Underside yellow with fine, dark streaks. Relatively long black tail with white-edged outer feathers. Female has overall duller appearance, with less yellow on head, darker back and a more streaking on underside.

Song: Thin, metallic, rising trill, often ending with lower drawn-out whistling note: ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-teeee

When heard: Resident.Males sing from March through to the end of breeding, which may continue into September.

Example: