Birds

A raven is a black bird in the same family as crows and magpies. They are one of the largest members of the crow family.

A robin is any small bird with a red chest, hence the common name robin redbreast. The bird most commonly called a robin is the European robin, shown in the picture. They eat flies and other small flying insects.

A rooster is a male chicken. Roosters grow an impressive red comb on top of their heads and often have a big, decorative tail and other brightly coloured feathers. A female chicken is called a hen. Only hens lay eggs. Roosters crow when the sun rises.

Seagulls are very common birds that live near the sea. They have webbed feet so they can paddle in water. Gulls catch and eat fish and will also scavenge for dead fish and trash people have thrown away.

Seagulls are very common on rubbish dumps and garbage tips.

Swallows are part of a large family of birds found all over the world, with the exception of Antarctica. They eat insects out of the air while they are flying around. There are many different kinds of swallows, with different habits. Many swallows have a distinctive forked tail.

A swan is a kind of large water bird, related to the duck and goose. A male swan is called a cob, a female swan is called a pen and a baby swan is called a cygnet.

Not all swans are white. Some swans have black patches, and swans in Australia are pure black.

Tawny frogmouths are birds very distantly related to owls. Owls usually hunt by flying around at night looking for food, but tawny frogmouths sit still on a perch waiting for food to come to them. They catch their prey with their beaks rather than their feet, and sometimes drop from their perch onto the prey on the ground.

Tawny Frogmouths hunt at night and spend the day sitting on a dead log or tree branch. They camouflage very well. They sit very still, and look just like a piece of dead tree branch.

Toucans are a family of birds from the semi-tropical areas of the Caribbean, South America, and southern Mexico. They range in size from about 1 foot (30cm) to 2 foot (60cm) long. Toucans have an extremely large bill, which they use for eating fruit.

Turkeys are a large bird originally from the forests of North America. They are usually kept on farms and bred for their meat.

Turkeys are eaten roasted on the Thanksgiving holiday.

You might also be interested in the country of Turkey.

The vulture is the common name for a large bird from two families of bird. Vultures don't hunt for food, they eat animals that are already dead. Vultures are found all over the world except Antarctica, Australia and its surrounding islands. Vultures are distinctive for having a bald head. They are related to the condor.