Big Card Birdwatch. How to play. Which bird wins? Choose your score carefully to beat your rivals.

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1 Big Card Birdwatch How to play 1. Shuffle your cards. Deal them out face down to all players. Everyone must have the same number of cards. 2. Each player only looks at their top card. 3. The player to the dealer s left reads out one of the facts (for example, weight 12 g ) from their top card. 4. The other players then read out the same fact and score from their top cards. See Which bird wins? below to work who will be the winner of the round.. The player with the highest score wins and takes all the top cards from the others and puts them at the bottom of their pile. 6. The winner of the first round then looks at their next card and picks a fact to read out (for example, length 2 cm ), and the game repeats. 7. If two or more player share the same top score then all the cards from that round are placed in the middle and the player picks another skill to read out. 8. The winner of that hand takes the others top cards, and the cards from the middle. 9. The game continues. Players who lose all their cards are out. The person with all the cards at the end is the Big Card Birdwatch winner! Which bird wins? Choose your score carefully to beat your rivals. Our Big Garden Birdwatch has been held for more than 30 years now! Every January we get a snapshot of which birds are seen in the nation s gardens. Is the bird on your card a low or high scorer? How long is your bird? There s quite a difference in the size of our garden birds. Being small might be helpful if you want to squeeze into a nestbox, but in Bird Card Birdwatch, being big is better! How heavy is your bird? Big birds are the winners here! Does your bird lay many eggs? This is a tricky one... small birds will be among the big winners species like blue and coal tits can lay lots of eggs, but so can pheasants... How common is the bird on your card? Are there more pairs of blackbirds or blue tits in the UK? RSPB Wildlife Explorers is the junior membership of the RSPB Illustrations by Mike Langman (rspb-images.com). The RSPB is a registered charity in England & Wales , in Scotland SC

2 HOUSE SPARROW Big Garden Birdwatch position million A pair of sparrows once nested 60 metres down a mine shaft in Yorkshire. BLACKBIRD Big Garden Birdwatch position million The blackbird s amazingly wide diet can include snakes, frogs, fish and mice. STARLING Big Garden Birdwatch position ,000 Starlings are such good mimics that they can imitate mobile phones and car alarms. CHAFFINCH Big Garden Birdwatch position million The chaffinch has the widest diet of any European finch, including seeds and insects. BLUE TIT Big Garden Birdwatch position million Female blue tits choose their mate based on the brightness of the male s cap. ROBIN Big Garden Birdwatch position million Continental robins are much shyer and are less common around towns and cities. WOODPIGEON Big Garden Birdwatch position million Woodpigeons are able to feed their babies on a kind of milk they make in their throats. GREAT TIT Big Garden Birdwatch position million The thicker the black stripe down his front, the more attractive a male is to a female great tit. GOLDFINCH Big Garden Birdwatch position ,000 A flock of goldfinches is called a charm! Illustrations by Mike Langman (rspb-images.com). The RSPB is a registered charity in England & Wales , in Scotland SC

3 COLLARED DOVE Big Garden Birdwatch position ,000 Collared doves are now common, but they only began breeding in the UK in 19. DUNNOCK Big Garden Birdwatch position million A female dunnock usually pairs with up to three males in the breeding season. LONG-TAILED TIT Big Garden Birdwatch position ,000 A pair of long-tailed tits took two weeks to build their nest, but forgot to make a hole to get in! GREENFINCH Big Garden Birdwatch position ,000 Greenfinches can be big bullies! They drive other birds away from feeders, so there s more for them. MAGPIE Big Garden Birdwatch position ,000 Magpies are the only British birds to maintain their nest all year-round. COAL TIT Big Garden Birdwatch position ,000 Coal tits collect food all through the autumn, so they have something to eat during the winter. FERAL PIGEON Big Garden Birdwatch position ,000 Feral pigeons are descended from rock doves, which live on the rocky coast of north Scotland JACKDAW Big Garden Birdwatch position ,000 Jackdaws are more likely to be thieves than magpies, as they have an eye for shiny objects CARRION CROW Big Garden Birdwatch position ,000 The crow family is thought to be among the cleverest of birds. They can solve problems Illustrations by Mike Langman (rspb-images.com). The RSPB is a registered charity in England & Wales , in Scotland SC

4 SONG THRUSH Big Garden Birdwatch position million If you find lots of smashed snail shells by a rock, they could have been left by a song thrush WREN Big Garden Birdwatch position million Wrens huddle together to keep warm in the winter. One nestbox contained over 60 wrens! BULLFINCH Big Garden Birdwatch position ,000 Bullfinches are often seen in pairs. They like eating the buds of trees in spring GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER Big Garden Birdwatch position ,000 If you hear a loud drumming in the woods, it s likely to be a great spot trying to attract a mate PHEASANT Big Garden Birdwatch position , million Pheasants originally came from Asia and were brought to the UK by people COMMON GULL Big Garden Birdwatch position ,700 Not very many common gulls breed in the UK. There are more of them here in the winter PIED WAGTAIL Big Garden Birdwatch position ,000 Large flocks of pied wagtails roost in trees in towns in winter, as it is warmer in towns ROOK Big Garden Birdwatch position million Rooks nest in groups called rookeries. Sometimes they steal twigs from each other s nests. FIELDFARE Big Garden Birdwatch position Fieldfares come to the UK for the winter from Scandinavia. They feed on fruit and berries Illustrations by Mike Langman (rspb-images.com). The RSPB is a registered charity in England & Wales , in Scotland SC

5 TREE SPARROW Big Garden Birdwatch position ,000 The tree sparrow is the shy countryside cousin of the house sparrow. In Asia, they are more common NUTHATCH Big Garden Birdwatch position ,000 Nuthatches are the only UK bird that can walk down a tree trunk, as well as up it BLACKCAP Big Garden Birdwatch position ,000 Some blackcaps have recently started to spend the winter in the UK, instead of migrating south Illustrations by Mike Langman (rspb-images.com). The RSPB is a registered charity in England & Wales , in Scotland SC