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Birds of Feather

Some characteristics are the same for all birds all over the world...
They all lay eggs, are vertebrates (have backbones) have four chambered hearts, have lightweight bones that are usually hollow and they all have feathers covering their skin.

Birds that have similar characteristics to each other are placed in categories as a "family."

Scientists use keys to classify relationships or differences of birds and this makes up the variety of different kinds of birds that we know today.

Some of the families of birds common to Tayside are listed below.

Herons: Large fish-eating birds that wade with their long legs rather than swim. Often, several pairs can nest together in colonies high on the tops of fir trees.

Ducks and geese: Birds of rivers, lochs and wetland areas that usually have webbed feet and collectively known as wildfowl. (in the world, there are only 147 different kinds of wildfowl)

Hawks: Diurnal (day) birds of prey like buzzards, with hooked bills and sharp talons to hold on to their prey.

Pheasants: Birds with short, rounded wings that prefer to walk rather than fly. Pheasants were brought to this country many many years ago - they did not originate from here.

Owls: Nocturnal (night) birds of prey. These birds have specially adapted feathers to help them fly silently, to catch their prey.

Pigeons: There are many pigeons in Tayside, but some kinds of pigeons have been domesticated and been associated with humans for thousands of years and known for their "homing" ability.

Woodpeckers: Birds that drill into trees for insects and have two toes pointing forward and two backward.

Perching birds: Over half of all birds belong to this family. They have a well-developed syrinx (voice box), which allows for a great variety of songs. For example; blackbird, robin, song thrush, chaffinch, crow and blue tit.