A new year, a fresh start, a chance to do whatever you want with your precious birding time! January is great, embrace the opportunity. How about kicking off the year by enjoying these five great birds?

Seeing an Icelandic-ringed Oystercatcher in Scotland inspired Vanessa Wright to trace its journeys…

NEST RECORDS

My sky is never empty. At dawn there may be just a lone crow beating a steady path north, or at dusk, the curiously undulating, huge wings of a heron heading to roost in a willow above the ditch. Duck

One of Europe’s most eye-catching birds has bred in the UK for the first time in almost three decades. A pair of hoopoes – famous for their salmon-pink bodies, bold black-and-white wings and showy cre

Check your answers against our explanations. Remember, there are no ‘trick’ birds or extreme rarities among these...