The Sounds of Coastal Cliffs surround you with the calls, cackles, shouts and seductive songs of the birds which love living life on the edge.
The number of birds here can be vast in spring and summer, creating an eclectic rhapsody of sound which soaks the senses like ocean spray. We hope this guide will help you to pick out and identify the sounds of some of these amazing birds as you wander across headlands this spring and summer. Of course, many of our more common birds also live here, and you can hear their songs in the Sounds of Parks and Gardens and Sounds of Parks and Gardens Tits and Finches pages.
Named after their preferred habitat, not their music taste, these brown-backed birds look like a little Song Thrush. They’re often seen hopping and running over rocky coastline looking for food.
A slimline brown and grey finch, the male’s red breast and forehead look like they have been dabbed on by a toddler. The female managed to escape before the child got too close.
The male looks a like a Robin in a balaclava, with a bright orange chest offset by a black head and a white collar. The female is browner, with a more subtle orange breast.
A bit angry, with four or more shouty notes linked together in phrases of a couple of seconds. More distinctive is its call which gives the Stonechat its name, as it sounds like two stones being rubbed together.
The Jackdaw may be our smallest crow, but it got the looks, with its bright eyes and a neck scarf of shimmering grey. Keeps its friends close, living in communal roosts, where they’ve been known to accessorise nests with the odd shiny trinket.
The dapper Razorbill is a fan of two-tone, going black above and white below. Its thickset bill carries on the theme with a flashy white stripe.
A seabird city regular, they dress appropriately, in formal dark brown and white. Sometimes they accessorise with a thin white line and eye ring like a pair of spectacles. Their slender beak is the best way to tell them apart from the similar Razorbill.
A big self-confident gull smartly dressed in pale grey and white. Has a bright yellow beak with a red spot and pink legs with webbed feet. Equally at home on cliffs or at your local seaside resort.
Gentler looking than the larger Herring Gull, with dark eyes and a smaller style of beak. Goes for matching black legs and wingtips, which look like they have been dipped in ink.
The Feral Pigeon, or Rock Dove, originated on coastal cliffs before setting out on its great urban adventure. Comes in many shades. The wild Rock Doves, which still live on the northwest islands of Scotland and Northern Ireland, are mainly grey with a shimmering purple and green neck scarf.
A stylish member of the crow family, decked out in black, which contrasts with its bright red legs and beak. A brilliant acrobat, its aerial displays can be seen along the west coasts of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Cornwall.
Spectacular large seabird which is mostly white, with black wing tips and a blonde Elton John-style wig. Nests on cliffs at sporadic locations around the coast, where it can be seen diving deep into the waves to feed.
A large, stocky and superfast falcon which has the air of a stylish gent. They wear a blue-grey suit with a black and white striped shirt beneath, their face white with a big black moustache. Legs and beak of a golden hue complete the look.
The clown of the cliffs, the parrot of the precipice, whatever your take on the Puffin, it’s a bird that dares to be different. Their formal black DJs and white shirts are offset by their big orange feet and brilliantly bright yellow, blue and red bills.
