Long-tailed birds in UK gardens

A very long tail on a garden bird usually means a magpie, a long-tailed tit if the bird is tiny and in a flock, a pied wagtail if it is walking on a lawn, or a ring-necked parakeet if it is bright green.

5 of the 30 birds on this site fit. Each one links to its full page, with what separates it from the ones it gets mistaken for.

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  Collared Dove

  Pale sandy dove with a thin black half-collar. Unknown in Britain before 1955, now in almost every village and suburb.

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  Long-tailed Tit

  A pink-and-black ball of feathers with a tail longer than its body, arriving in excitable flocks and gone again in a minute.

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  Magpie

  Black and white, long-tailed and loudly opinionated. A clever, much-maligned crow that is doing rather better than its reputation.

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  Pied Wagtail

  A slim black-and-white bird that walks rather than hops, wagging its tail constantly, usually on a lawn, path, drive or flat roof.

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  Ring-necked Parakeet

  A bright green, long-tailed parrot with a red bill. Genuinely common only in London and the south-east, and heard long before it is seen.

Not here? Describe what you saw — the identifier ranks every garden bird rather than filtering them out, so it will not hide yours.