The house sparrow is a familiar, streaky brown bird of towns, parks and gardens. Males sport a grey cap and black bib, the size of which indicates their status.

These little sea snails are found amongst the seaweed on rocky shores around much of the UK. They come in lots of different colours, from bright yellow to chequered brown!

This brown seaweed lives high up on rocky shores, just below the high water mark. Its blades are usually twisted, giving it the name Spiral Wrack.

The small blue's name is a little misleading: it is our smallest butterfly, but only shows a dusting of blue on brown wings. It is scarce, occurring on chalk grassland, mostly in southern…

A scarce and declining bird, the tree sparrow can be spotted on farmland and in woodlands; it is not an urban bird in the UK. It has a brown cap and black cheek-spots, unlike the similar house…

The fluffy, white heads of common cotton-grass dot our brown, boggy moors and heaths as if a giant bag of cotton wool balls has been thrown across the landscape!

The Dark bush-cricket, as its name suggests, is dark brown or reddish. It can be found in woodlands, hedgerows and gardens throughout summer. Its irregular chirpings are a familiar sound of summer…

The oak marble gall wasp produces brown, marble-shaped growths, or 'galls', on oak twigs. Inside the gall, the larvae of the wasp feed on the host tissues, but cause little damage.

This large, brown beetle can be seen swarming around streetlights in spring. They live underground as larvae for years and emerge as adults often in large numbers. Listen for their characteristic…