9-letter Birds that contain R

List of 9-letter Birds that contain R

1

Albatross

Diomedea exulans

The largest flying bird by wingspan, a Southern Ocean seabird that can glide thousands of kilometers without flapping and live over 60 years.

2

Brambling

Fringilla montifringilla

A handsome winter finch from Scandinavian forests that arrives in Britain each autumn — the male has a striking orange-and-black plumage in breeding dress, and in exceptional years when beech mast crops are abundant, millions can gather at single sites across Central Europe in breathtaking communal roosts.

3

Cormorant

Phalacrocoracidae (family)

A diving water bird with non-waterproof feathers — visible drying with spread wings on rocks and pilings, used for centuries by Asian fishermen as living fishing tools, and now ecologically critical fish-eaters across coastal and inland waters worldwide.

4

Crossbill

Loxia curvirostra

A finch with a uniquely crossed bill — the upper and lower mandibles overlap like a pair of scissors, allowing it to prise open pine and spruce cones and extract the seeds inside with precision; crossbills can breed in the depths of winter when cones are ripe, sometimes nesting in snow.

5

Fieldfare

Turdus pilaris

A large, handsome thrush that arrives in Britain from Scandinavia each autumn in clattering flocks to feast on hawthorn berries and windfall apples — with its distinctive chestnut back, grey rump, and spotted orange breast, it is one of Britain's most striking winter visitors.

6

Firecrest

Regulus ignicapilla

The more brilliant cousin of the goldcrest — the firecrest matches the goldcrest in size (one of Europe's smallest birds) but is more vividly marked; the male has a brilliant orange-red crest stripe flanked by black, white supercilium, and bronze patches on the sides of the neck giving a jewelled appearance; a scarce but increasing breeder in Britain, mainly in spruce woodland in southern England.

7

Goldcrest

Regulus regulus

Britain's smallest bird — the goldcrest weighs as little as a 10-pence coin, and at 4–7 g is the joint-smallest bird in Europe alongside the firecrest; a tiny olive-green bird with a bright stripe on the crown — yellow in females, orange-red in males, displayed when excited; common in coniferous woodland and one of the most abundant British birds despite suffering severe losses in cold winters.

8

Partridge

Perdix perdix

A plump, ground-dwelling game bird of European farmland and hedgerows — the "pear tree" bird of the twelve days of Christmas, now in serious decline across much of its range due to agricultural intensification.

9

Ptarmigan

Lagopus muta

The high Arctic grouse that turns completely white in winter — Britain's only truly alpine bird, confined to the Scottish Highlands above 800 metres; it moults three times a year to match its surroundings (brown in summer, mottled grey in autumn, pure white in winter) and is so well camouflaged that walkers almost step on them before the bird moves.

10

Razorbill

Alca torda

A cliff-nesting seabird with a distinctive laterally flattened "razor" bill, banded in white — the closest living relative of the extinct great auk; it dives deep for fish by flying underwater with its wings, nests on cliff ledges in large colonies alongside guillemots and puffins, and is an excellent indicator of North Atlantic fish stocks.

11

Ring Ouzel

Turdus torquatus

The mountain blackbird of Britain's uplands — a stocky thrush resembling a blackbird with a distinctive white crescent bib, breeding on moorland and mountain slopes above 250 metres; a migratory species that arrives from Africa in late March and departs by October, its far-carrying, melancholy song one of the definitive sounds of the wild uplands.

12

Sandpiper

Scolopacidae (family)

A diverse family of small to medium shorebirds with long bills probing for invertebrates in mud and sand — many species undertake some of the longest non-stop bird migrations on Earth, sometimes 11,000+ km in a single flight.