The RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch is the world's biggest bird survey and the results help the RSPB to keep track of bird populations right across the UK. Just watch and count the birds in your garden or local park for an hour and submit your results.
These are the ten most common garden birds in the U.K
Blackbird
The males live up to their name but, confusingly, females are brown often with spots and streaks on their breasts.
Blue tit
A colourful mix of blue, yellow, white and green makes the blue tit one of our most attractive and most recognisable garden visitors.
Chaffinch
The chaffinch is the UK's second commonest breeding bird, and is arguably the most colourful of the UK's finches. Its patterned plumage helps it to blend in when feeding on the ground.
Collared dove
Collared doves are a pale, pinky-brown grey colour, with a distinctive black neck collar (as the name suggests). They have deep red eyes and reddish feet.
Goldfinch
A highly coloured finch with a bright red face and yellow wing patch. Sociable, often breeding in loose colonies, they have a delightful liquid twittering song and call.
Great tit
The largest UK tit - green and yellow with a striking glossy black head with white cheeks and a distinctive two-syllable song.
House sparrow
Noisy and gregarious, these cheerful exploiters of man's rubbish and wastefulness, have managed to colonise most of the world. The ultimate avian opportunist perhaps.
Robin
The UK's favourite bird - with its bright red breast it is familar throughout the year and especially at Christmas! Males and females look identical, and young birds have no red breast and are spotted.
Starling
Smaller than blackbirds, with a short tail, pointed head, triangular wings, starlings look black at a distance but when seen closer they are very glossy with a sheen of purples and greens.
Woodpigeon
The UK's largest and commonest pigeon, it is largely grey with a white neck patch and white wing patches, clearly visible in flight. Although shy in the countryside it can be tame and approachable.
If you require a recording sheet, you can download one at
http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/
Jokes of the week
A duck walks into a chemist and buys a chapstick. The manager says, "Will that be cash or card?" The duck says, "Just put it on my bill!"
Two vultures were in the desert eating a dead clown. The first vulture asks the second vulture: "Does this taste funny to you?"
A Frenchman walks into a bar with a parrot on his shoulder. The bartender asks, "Where did you get that from?" The parrot replies, "In France, there are millions of them!"
Puzzle of the week
If AK = 10, RV = 4 and JZ = 16,
what does MO = ?
