When whitethroats arrive from their wintering grounds south of the Sahara they like to flit about the hedgerows, exploring their summer accommodation. A similar size to great tits, they are members of the warbler family and give voice when perched or in flight. There's a scratchy catch to their call, but a cheery tone, too, as they rapidly repeat a short verse several times over. Both sexes have a distinctive white throat, with the male's crisper than the female's. Males have a pinkish breast, grey head, white eye ring and dark wing feathers with red-brown edging. Females have a subtler grey-brown head, with off-white breast and similar wings. The legs are sturdy and yellow, and the beak is slender and strong. The tail is relatively long and bobs up and down as the birds search for insects and berries.

These lovely birds have an element of surprise about them. Either they're popping up somewhere you don't expect, all bobbing tail and bright eyes, or they look as though something has made them jump. They tend to rush with pattering feet along the ground, then suddenly draw to a halt. Wagtails like areas with open spaces, aren't scared of humans, and have a steady, inquisitive gaze that looks almost friendly. Easy to recognise, their overall impression is of black and white stripes, with the ever-twitching long, slender tail. Pied wagtails nest in cosy places, such as ivy, stone walls and roofs. They have a sing-song call, a kind of "tsi tsi wit". The song is similar - a few piped notes with pauses in between. If you're lucky, you'll see them gather together to ward off larger birds with their loud chirping.

Alert and acrobatic like their blue and great tit cousins, coal tits' plumage isn't as colourful. At 10cm long, they're about the size of great tits, have a thicker neck and are slightly bulkier, but still look dainty. They have a black cap, greyish back with pale-green tinge, and a flash of white on the back of the neck, as well as white cheeks and white wing bars - a larger one at the ‘elbow' and a small one at the ‘shoulder', which close up in a line of dots like beads. In winter, the coal tit flocks with other tits to feed in woodlands, gardens and parks. Its beak is slimmer, making it more adept at teasing out conifer seeds. They spend lots of time in treetops feasting on insects, spiders and nuts, and often visit birdtables and nut feeders. Coal tits nest in holes in trees, or sometimes in rocks, and like to sing from high perches in their piping twitter. If you're lucky, you may catch sight of a coal tit that has been affronted - it will raise a tiny feathered crest on its head.

Image: Nigel Blake/rspb-images.com. The RSPB is the UK charity working to secure a healthy environment for birds and all wildlife, helping to create a better world for everyone. For more information, visit the RSPB website, www.rspb.org

May brings the flutter of fledgling blue tits and great tits just about everywhere. A screech and a flurry of colour signals their arrival on a bush or bird table. They are comically acrobatic, hanging upside down to get a better feeding angle and examining plants for insects. There are around two million great tit breeding pairs in the UK, and both birds lay up to a dozen eggs per brood. Fully grown, blue tits look round and small (11.5cm long), while great tits are slightly larger. They both have yellow breasts, green shoulders, white cheeks and a small white wing bar, but the great tit has a plain black cap and black bar down its chest. Their song is a sweet ‘teacher, teacher, teacher'. The blue tit has a blue cap, and its eyes nestle in a black stripe running from its beak to the back of its head. Neither bird is shy - they visit bird tables en masse, and will breed in nest boxes. Fledglings love splashing around, if you put out a birdbath.

Image: Chris Gomersall/rspb-images.com.The RSPB is the UK charity working to secure a healthy environment for birds and all wildlife, helping to create a better world for everyone. For more information, visit the RSPB website, www.rspb.org

After wintering in Africa, swallows return to the UK in late March. Around 375,000 pairs breed here each summer. The sexes look alike, with a white breast, dark upper parts, curved wings and long forked-tail streamers that are easy to spot, although their deep-red chins can be hard to see. Soon after the swallow appears, so does its relative the house martin. Its blue-black upper parts and white breast are similar but the house martin has a distinctive white rump and shallower forked tail, without streamers. Both birds feed on insects they catch in flight, which can be breathtaking to watch - they twist and turn gracefully at speed. Seeing them return to their roosts in the eaves is a treat, too, as they swoop in a blur, vanishing through a tiny hole. Swallows prefer the countryside, while house martins often nest in villages and towns. Both birds build cup-shaped mud nests attached to beams or eaves. If house martins visit your garden to collect mud from puddles, look out for the white feathers on their feet - swallows don't have them.
Photo courtesy of Andy Vidler/Sussex Wildlife Trust. There are 47 local Wildlife Trusts across the whole of the UK, working for an environment rich in wildlife for everyone. With 670,000 members, Wildlife Trusts are the largest UK voluntary organisation dedicated to conserving the full range of the UK's habitats and species. www.wildlifetrusts.org

The collective noun for goldfinches is a charm, and it's not hard to see why. They are attractive and sociable, often twittering to each other or bursting into melody. A goldfinch has a red face, black and white markings on the head, wings and tail, and gold wing bars. The wide beak is sharp and pointed, ideal for prising seeds from dandelions and thistles, and catching insects. You might see goldfinches flitting through the bushes at eyelevel - they don't mind being watched. An abrupt ‘zeez' call will let you know if they feel threatened. They like areas with trees, bushes and long weeds, and love to find sunflower and nyger seeds on bird tables. Some of the UK's goldfinches migrate to Spain after summer, but 100,000 winter here, gathering in small, voluble flocks. In the 19th century they were kept in cages - how much nicer to see them in the wild.

Blackbirds are a British staple that’s a little taken for granted, but has a unique appeal. They’re common – up to 15 million in the UK each winter – as well as being territorial and excitable. Such a noisy combination means you’ll often hear a blackbird before you see it. They’re fast: a black flash through the trees, and a loud cry, is likely to be a blackbird defending his patch. The male is sleek and black, with a yellow beak and a yellow ring around his eyes, which accentuates his beady gaze. The female is the same size (around 25cm long) but brown, sometimes with speckles, and without the eye-ring. Amazingly, both can live for up to 20 years. If you hear rustling in the undergrowth, chances are it’s a blackbird, foraging for insects or worms. They love berries and fruit, so keep your eyes peeled as you pass berry bushes or apple trees.
Image: Chris Gomersall/rspb-images.com. The RSPB is the UK charity working to secure a healthy environment for birds and all wildlife, helping to create a better world for everyone. For more information, visit www.rspb.org.uk

A plentiful winter visitor to the UK, from September to March or April, the redwing is 22cm long, with a red patch on either side of a speckled white-and-brown breast. They have a white stripe like a drooping moustache curving from the beak (yellow with a black tip) below the dark cheek, and a black stripe across the eyes with a strong cream-white stripe above. This pattern lets you spot redwings from quite a distance. In flight, you'll see rusty-red under the wings. Members of the thrush family, redwings will flock with fieldfares, starlings or other thrushes to eat berries and invertebrates. Sometimes they riffle through leaf litter looking for food, or you might spot one sitting on a high branch. They prefer parks, woodland and open fields, but will come to gardens in harsh weather - particularly if there are hedges with berries. Shy at the bird table, they like fruit on the ground, such as apples. Listen out for their light ‘tseet' cry as they fly at night.
Image: Roger Wilmshurst, RSPB

Members of the finch family, bramblings come here to winter from colder northern Europe. Sociable but shy, they can join flocks of other finches, but don't generally visit bird tables unless it's very cold. Their shape is squat, with a white patch on the rump. Their flight is swift and swooping, with neat, tucked-in wings for a brief glide with each graceful dip. Darker on top and paler below, bramblings have white underparts and an orange-yellow breast - the male's is more vivid, with small black spots low on his sides. The female's chest, head and neck are more noticeably yellow, and both have yellow, white or russet wing markings. In winter females have a grey crown with dark white sides; males have a black head, sometimes with rusty colouring. The beak is yellow with a dark tip. Bramblings spend much time on the ground, looking for seeds. Their ‘eeet' call sounds like a tiny frog in the throat, and there's an ear-catching ‘buzz' in their song.

Sooner or later, a cormorant with its quietly dramatic behaviour will catch your eye. These water birds have sleek black plumage, a long neck, strong bill elegantly hooked at the tip, and a wingspan of up to 150cm. There is a small area of yellow under the base of the bill and a patch of white around the chin. In flight, they hold their bill and short tail slightly upwards, and there is a curve by the base of the neck. They are skilled divers, plunging into the depths having been sitting on the water's surface a moment before - they can cover great distances under water. A cormorant will then typically find a perch and spread its wings to dry. They are often confused with shags, but shags are slightly smaller and have a steeper forehead and straight neck in flight. Cormorants can have a subtle russet tinge on the wings and, in spring, a white patch on the upper thigh. They nest in cliffs or trees near water, or sometimes in reeds.

Despite a recent decline in numbers, the starling is one of the UK's most common garden birds, with more than a million breeding pairs. They're smaller than blackbirds, but the two are easily confused initially. Starlings appear plain and dark from afar, but look closer and you'll see their greeny-blue sheen; in winter, they have whitish spots dotted over their breast, back and underparts. Their pointed wings and short tail are clearly recognisable during flight. They don't hop on both feet but put one foot in front of the other with an endearing gait. They make a variety of sounds and their trills, rattles, clicks, whistles and swooping singsong noises are sometimes almost electronic (a bit like Star Wars' R2-D2). They are able to mimic other birds, as well as noises such as phones, which adds to their air of mischief. As they can live for more than 20 years, any starlings at your bird table may be returning to a long-favoured haunt.

These large soaring birds of prey are often glimpsed high over wooded hills and farmland. Throughout the year, but most often in spring, you'll hear the loud, melancholy, cat-like ‘miiyoo' call, particularly in Wales and Scotland. You may see a pair circling lazily, with their young trailing behind noisily - buzzards are quite vociferous for a bird of prey. Their wingspan is around 130cm and birds have varied colouring, ranging from rich, dark brown to pale. Most are dark above and paler underneath, and all have dark wingtips with 'fingers'. The wings are very broad and the front tends to be dark, with paler plumage towards the back edge. In flight, the tail is fanned out and shorter than the wings' width. To spot one, look for the wings held in a forward V-shape, or you may see one tumbling with another bird or two - crows, as well as bids of prey, sometimes fight with them. Buzzards also perch motionless on poles or pylons, unbothered by traffic.

These sociable creatures often nest and forage in large numbers, chirping and fluttering territorially. Males have a warm chestnut back and sides, with black chest and back-stripes, and a white wing bar. Their cheeks and cap are greyish white. Females and young are paler, with subtler wing bar, darker grey cheeks and no black on the chest. Both sexes are around 15cm long and can appear slightly dishevelled due to their fluffed-up feathers. House sparrows mate for life, share chick-rearing duties, return to the same nest site - often a hole or nook in a building - and feed their chicks on caterpillars and grasshoppers. They are never usually far from humans, and happily visit bird tables. At harvest time they head for farmland to find seeds and grain. There are around 3-5 million breeding pairs in the UK, but the RSPB warns that numbers have declined by over 60% in 25 years. Well-stocked bird tables will help them through a sparse winter.

This is a quietly beautiful bird. Catching a glimpse of one feels like something of a gift, as they don’t often spend time in the open and prefer dense undergrowth and tall trees. Garden warblers are plump, around 14cm in length, and have large, dark eyes with a light-coloured ring around and a subtle, pale line above. The sturdy legs and dark-tipped beak are grey, while plumage is green-brown or olive, with subtle variations. The throat is pale, almost off-white, reaching to patches of light grey on the side of the throat and jaw, and there can be brownish feathers on the wings. These are summer visitors and you’re more likely to hear one before you see it; the call is a ‘tack tack,’ and the song loud and gorgeous, with low, quick notes alternating with harsher bursts of rippling up and down.

These bright little birds are nearly always on the move. They often spend time with other greenfinches so it's not unusual to see several at once. They're around 15cm long and look a little stouter than other finches. Males are greenish all over, with various subtle tinges of colour. There is a very defined wing bar of brilliant yellow, and in flight you'll see yellow on the base and sides of the tail, which is black-tipped and forked. The female has subtler colouring, with less yellow on the wing and tail and a brownish hue to the upper parts. The eyes of both sexes are deep black, with a soft black stripe across, and the beak and legs are pink. Greenfinches have a fast ‘chup' call that quickens into a trill, and there are two songs - one sounds wheezy, the other involves whistles and acrobatic sing-song trills. The discovery of seeds at a bird table can incite a feeding frenzy, so watch out for a collective blur of green and yellow feathers.