The Best British Bird Trivia

Who doesn’t love the odd random fact? With lockdowns impinging our ways of engaging with each other, many of us have found quizzes to be a conversational way to connect and catch up. We have a great desire to find obscure pieces of information and if you’re a naturalist, you revel in the opportunity to share such bizarre trivia with others.

Birdlife in the UK is varied and as a nation, we have a profound fondness for our feathered friends. With that being said, there’s plenty of whacky facts regarding our ornithological neighbours. Fancy a nugget of wisdom to share with your family over Christmas? Or perhaps just wanting to learn something new? Look no further.

Here are eight of my favourite pieces of British bird trivia.

Swifts and their lack of legs

A bold call, but arguably swifts are the most underrated birds that you can find in the UK. Their soaring screeches are the sound of summer and a phrenologists dream. They’re also incredible marvels of nature as not only is their migration astounding, not only do they SLEEP ON THE WING but they also have no feet. Well, sort of. Their Latin name Apus apus loosely translates to ‘lack of feet’, which is partially true. They do have legs, however they’re incredibly small and weak. For a bird that lives most of its life flying, it’s evolved to only really need legs when they are in their nest. Like your lightweight mate, they’re basically legless.

When falcons meet football

There’s plenty of links between British birds and football clubs, what with the Owls of Sheffield and the Thrushes of West Brom, but there’s even a football game named after a bird. No, the FIFA pipit does not exist. Your dad’s favourite table top football game is of course Subbuteo, but did you ever wonder where that random name came from? Well, we’re back in the land of Latin to explain this one. When the creators of the game were told they couldn’t call it ‘Hobby’, they improvised and went with the scientific name for the bird with the same name. I guess a bird of prey fits, they’re both good at playing on the wing.

The Egyptian Shelduck

Remember those geese that swapped the pyramids for the Norfolk broads? Yeah, they’re not actually geese. This news isn’t earth shattering but it’s still technically true. I mean, they’re not a species of finch or anything, but geese they are not. Genetically, Egyptian geese are more closely related to shelducks, but calling them geese I guess rolls off the tongue better. They are originally from Egypt so don't panic, that part remains true. If it walks like a goose and honks like a goose, maybe it’s actually a duck?

Magpie in the mirror

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Corvids are ruddy smart. Ravens are excellent mimics, carrion crows have exhibited tool use and quite incredibly, magpies can recognise themselves in a mirror. They have the ability to look at their reflection and understand that they're not just looking at another magpie but at their own face/bill. That might not seem like a huge feat, as humans possess this trait at 18 months old, but given that they are one of only a handful of animals on Earth that have self recognition, it’s quite something. The proud accolade for the magpie is that they are the only species of bird on the planet to recognise oneself in a mirror. Maybe being a bird brain isn’t so bad after all...

The rarely found 'common' gull

The guys who first named all the birds clearly loved a wind up. First Egyptian non-geese now this?! You would think that common gulls are the most populous of these seabirds, flooding our coasts and becoming so frequent, they’re irrelevant. Wrong. This honour goes to our black-headed and herring friends, with common gulls nowhere to be seen. Less of a regular, more of a rarity and even one to get the gull fanatics salivating. There’s a few varied explanations for this misnomer but the widely agreed reason is that they used to have much larger populations (so were common when categorised) and would nest on ‘common’ land like rough pastures and open fields. Perhaps they should be more commonly known as the field gull instead, does that even work?

Bearded loners

The tit family is full of iconic species such as the blues, the greats and the coals. For any wetland wanderers, the joy of catching a glimpse or to hear the pinging of a bearded tit is a real treat. Except, much like our Egyptian friends, we have a misnomer! They’re not part of the tit family at all. Initially, scientists believed that they were most closely related to the parrotbill family, however further research has found that these flitting reed dwellers are alone in their own unique family; Parunidae. They don’t conform to the categories that society has shoved them into and they’re living their best lives. Good on them.

Woodpecker tongue twisters

Our native green, great spotted and lesser spotted woodpeckers are iconic and easily recognisable but I bet a good question that you’ve never thought to ask is, how do they not get a headache? We lightly bang our noggins on a cupboard door and we wince all evening, so how can they keep a cool head by drilling their face into a tree repeatedly? Well, a number of factors contribute, including a dense skull, strong neck, a head full of shock absorbers and a very small brain. Sorry guys. But that’s only the second most exciting fact about a woodpeckers head (I know right) because their massive tongues actually curl from the top of their skulls, round the back of their brains and back round to their bill. Their tongues can be around 10 centimetres in length - a third of their body length. Now THAT’S one to tell the grandkids.

Goatsucking nightjars

I know right. Weird. But hear me out, nightjars used to be known as goatsuckers. The guys in charge of naming all the birds also ran with some other names like ‘darkness-tub’ and ‘evening-Tupperware’ but I guess they stuck with nightjar. Anyway, back to sucking goats. This is a name that first came around over 2000 years ago when farmers would find these birds roosting amongst their livestock overnight. Instead of thinking they were simply sleeping, the logical explanation was that they were hungry for milk. Obviously. The answer was that the goats pooped, attracted flies and other bugs which therefore attracted our insectivorous feathered friends. Although maybe dung beetle and goats milk make a cracking combo...

What are your favourite facts about our birds? Are there any corkers that I have missed? I'd love to hear them so do pop a comment below!

Adios...