What's Your Favourite Bird?

[Tracey.A]

Gosh, it's so hard to choose just one. I love Tawny owls, because they look and sound beautiful, but I remember a previous house I lived in and when weeding along the fence a Blackbird use to be patiently following me along the fence gorging himself on all the worms and insects that I brought to the surface. This Blackbird showed no fear of me at all and quite often hopped about my hands as I weeded the garden. He got rid of the pests and I got rid of the weeds, so between us we were a pretty good team.

Tracey

[captaincarot]

can't say what my favourite is but by far the most under appreciated bird in britain is the starling,

so i'm going to put them down as mine.

[sunnydale]

I mentioned the Long Tailed Tit in another thread, so I guess it's a favourite of mine....
But Redstarts, Treecreepers and Nuthatches are also very high on the list!!

Sorry, it's just soooo hard to pick one!

Oh, and I love to see Golden Plovers, Dippers and Goldcrests too!

[pegasus]

The Swallow without doubt.It cheers me up when[if] it arrives, as it heralds summer, but saddens me when it goes as you know winter is round the corner]--Sleek and superb in filght, and there is nothing better in summer than to see swallows[and house martins for that matter] swooping through street or fields. If there is such a thing as reincarnation i would choose to come back as a Swallow.Simply because i like the idea of sodding off to South Africa as winter approaches.[via France and morocco]. Though not so keen on taking my chances crossiing the Sahara

[2dogs2000]

For me it has to be a skylark. I love to hear one singing from such a height and then trying to locate it.

When I was a child I read a story about birds debating on who was the 'king' of the birds. They decided that the one that flew the highest was the 'king'. All the birds flew as high as they could, but the eagle went higher and higher and when he was tired the skylark sneaked off his back and flew higher still. The skylark became 'king' of the birds.

The story obviously made a great impression on me.

[Madelinew]

Each of the above posts I have read and said to myself - oh that's my favourite too. Until the next post and I've said to myself - oh that's my favourite too. So erm is 'all of them' a major cop out? I love different birds for different things. Screaming swifts herald summer, swallows gorging on insects and queueing up along telegraph wires herald autumn, all my lovely blackbirds posturing to each other herald winter. And buzzards accompany my every walk. My first Great Northern reminds me of a wonderful holiday and getting to see this my holy grail of birds when Arthur Ransome got me into birding over 30 years ago. I adore any corvids because they are so interesting to watch and so clever. The little egrets on Ryde sands every evening are so pretty.

I ought to stop now

[cutecoot]

Originally Posted by captaincarot

can't say what my favourite is but by far the most under appreciated bird in britain is the starling,

so i'm going to put them down as mine.

Starlings are my favourite too, captaincarot Such a fascinating, colourful, lively bird.

Love goldfinches too

[derekmc]

Think I'm with you Cutecoot. I've always been fond of goldfinches, both for their colour and their bubbling little calls. Seeing them always seems to cheer me up.

It's hard to pick just one species, though!

Derek

[Bishopswood]

I immediately thought Skylark, a realy evocative song that instantly takes me back to my youth and warm sunny days. But I do like to see Robins in the garden.
Difficult choice as others have said!

[Stinky Bob]

Gang of Swifts - racing and screaming