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Ornithology is the scientific name for the study of birds or bird-watching. The word 'ornis' is Greek for 'bird'. The suffix '-ology' is derived from the Greek word 'logos' meaning the 'study of'. The great thing about ornithology is that you can do it from the comfort of your own home - so it is a great activity for children. Children can soon learn to identify common garden birds such as the house sparrow, robin, blackbird and song thrush. People living in urban areas might spot domestic pigeons, starlings and house martins. A bird table can be used to encourage more birds to visit a garden and nest boxes can be built or bought to provide nesting sites for birds such as blue tits. A 'wild' area in the corner of the garden, where grasses and other plants are left to seed, is an important way of encouraging more birds to visit.                                                                                                                           

Birds can be seen everywhere. Surprisingly, driving along a motorway can be a good way to see interesting ones. The kestrel, also known as the "windhover", can often be seen hovering motionless next to the motorway, waiting for mice and voles to surface after being disturbed by passing vehicles. Another bird of prey (or raptor) which can be seen near motorways and dual carriageways is the buzzard, hunting for its favourite food, rabbits. You can often see a buzzard perched on one of the lampposts next to the A380 near Marldon in Devon. House martins make their nests under the eaves of houses and starlings and pigeons often nest in buildings. In seaside towns, herring gulls have found that flat roofs can be just as suitable for nesting sites as rocky cliffs.

Migration is an important aspect in the lives of many bird species. One of the most famous migratory birds is the swallow. The author, Horatio Clare, wrote a book called 'A Single Swallow' in which he followed the migration of the swallow from South Africa to South Wales. Swallows can be seen in the UK in the Spring and Summer swooping down like fighter jets to scoop flies from near the surface of ponds and rivers, but in late Autumn and Winter they are nowhere to be seen. Hundreds of years ago there was much speculation as to where swallows went in the winter. Some people believed that they hid in the mud at the bottom of ponds! The truth is almost as incredible as that fictitious idea. The tiny swallow weighing only around 25g covers around 200 miles per day in its epic migration from Britain to Africa, covering distances of up to 7500 miles each way. Many other birds migrate and just as we lose birds like swifts and swallows during our winters, we gain others such as redwings and geese. The sight of a flock of geese in their iconic V-shaped formation is well known to anyone who enjoys winter walks near large bodies of water. Although they argue about how much energy it saves, scientists are certain that flying in this formation saves a considerable amount of energy as the birds behind the leader gain a tow rather like cyclists in the peloton in the Tour de France.                            

Many birds become lost during migration, perhaps being blown off course during stormy weather. This leads to birds being seen in places where they are not normally found. Rare visitors to Devon include the tiny yellow-browed warbler, the flamboyant hoopoe and the large, long-necked purple heron. Sightings of rare birds are collected by 'twitchers' who travel huge distances and wait for hours, often in cold wet conditions, for a glimpse of a rare migratory visitor.

The plumage of birds (their feathers) is very important to them; if it is not kept in good condition they will be unable to fly and will also be vulnerable to adverse weather conditions. Birds spend a lot of time preening or keeping their feathers in perfect condition. Preening is helped by the presence of the preen gland at the base of the tail, this produces an oil which helps make feathers waterproof and flexible. Preening also removes parasites from feathers. In addition to preening, birds also look after their feathers by having water and dust baths and even, in some species, by rubbing ants over their skin - possibly to kill parasites. Birds often look larger in cold weather than in the summer this is because they are able to fluff up their feathers, trapping an insulating layer of air inside.                          

All birds moult, some species moult once a year, others several times each year. Moulting is the growing of new feathers and the shedding of the old ones. Black-headed gulls can be seen all year round in British seaside towns. In summer they have chocolate-brown heads, but in the winter they just have one small dark spot behind each eye. Immature herring gulls have a dark grey plumage, but this is moulted and replaced with the white and light grey plumage of the adults. Birds which are normally brightly coloured may moult before incubating their eggs, making them less visible to predators.

The diet of birds is extremely varied; some birds such as the herring gull eat almost anything whilst others are much more specialised. The beaks of birds of prey are adapted for tearing flesh; other birds have beaks adapted for eating seeds or insects. One of the most specialised beaks of all is the beak of the humming bird, adapted for drinking nectar from flowers. The robin is known as the gardener's friend as it follows gardeners around when they are digging, waiting for them to turn up a tasty worm. Thrushes use stones to smash the shells of snails and often have a favourite stone known as an 'anvil'. Egyptian vultures use stones to smash the shells of large eggs. Parrots use objects such as small sticks to scratch themselves or retrieve pieces of food from behind netting, while some crows in Japan crack nutshells by dropping the nuts onto pedestrian crossings - once the nut has been cracked by a passing car the crow retrieves it when the lights are red!

Birds are incredibly well adapted to their environment: the emperor penguin incubates its eggs during the severe cold of an Antarctic winter, while the secretary bird lives in the scorching savannah of Africa and kills snakes with ease. Birds such as the swift and the albatross spend almost all their time in flight while other birds such as the penguin are unable to fly. Flightlessness was the undoing of the dodo and great auk which were unable to escape being massacred and completely wiped out by the number one predator, man. From the roadrunner in the desert to the emperor penguin in the Antarctic, birds are so well adapted to their environment that we can be sure that wherever in the world humans go, birds have already got there!