As its name suggests, Red bartsia does have a red tinge to its stem, leaves and small flowers. Look for it on roadside verges, railway cuttings and waste ground in summer.

Wild marjoram is actually the same aromatic herb as oregano which is used in Mediterranean cooking. Its small, pink flower clusters can be seen on chalk and limestone grasslands in summer.

Perhaps the first sign that spring is just around the corner is the snowdrop poking its way through the frosted soil of a woodland, churchyard or garden. From January, look for its famous nodding…

Famed for its super-fast fishing dives into the sea, the northern gannet (or gannet) is a distinctive white bird with a yellow head and black wingtips. It nests in large, noisy, smelly colonies on…

The black garden ant is the familiar and abundant small ant that lives in gardens, but also turns up indoors searching for sugary food. In summer, winged adults, or 'flying ants', swarm…

The common spangle gall wasp produces a small, disc-shaped growth, or 'gall', on the undersides of oak leaves. Inside the gall, the larvae of the wasp feed on the host tissues, but cause…

A diminutive but aggressive predator, the three-spined stickleback hunts tadpoles and small fish. It is also known for fiercely protecting its nest of eggs until they hatch. Look for it in ponds,…

The Azure damselfly is a pale blue, small damselfly that is commonly found around most waterbodies from May to September. Try digging a wildlife pond in your garden to attract damselflies and…

Traditionally a small finch of woodland and scrub, it appears that the lesser redpoll is now moving into our gardens. It has a streaky brown body, red forehead and black bib, and mostly feeds on…

A spindly tree of heathland and moorlands, and damp soils, the Downy birch is well known for its paper-thin, white bark. It is so-called for the hairy stalks from which its leaves grow; the Silver…

As the only crow with a red bill and red legs, the all-black chough is easy to identify. But it's harder to spot: there are only small, coastal populations in Scotland, Ireland, Wales,…