Birds

Bird life varies according to the season, with high summer having fewer birds in the garden and olive groves than other times of the year.

• Birds I have seen in our garden and the hills and mountains are:
  Alpine Chough; Black Redstart; Blackbird; Blackcap; Blue Tit; Buzzard; Carrion Crow; Chaffinch; Chiffchaff; Collared Dove; Crag Martin; Golden Eagle; Firecrest; Goldfinch; Great Tit; Greenfinch; Grey Wagtail; House Martin; Jay; Kestrel; Lesser Kestrel (they usually nest in the village right above us); Magpie; Peregrine; Raven; Robin; Sardinian Warbler; Starling; Stonechat; Swallow; Swift; Wren.
• Birds I have seen on the coast are:
  Black-headed Gulls (these were photographed in Oneglia harbour); Blue Rock Thrush (between Oneglia and Diano Marina); Common Tern; Cormorant; Great Crested Grebe; Kingfisher; Little Egret; Mallard; Moorhen; Mute Swan; Red-breasted Merganser; Yellow-legged Gull.

Liguria Birding has an excellent photo gallery of the birds you might see, with English and scientific names.

EBN Italia has regional check-lists of Italian birds.