Garden birds

Dark-capped Bulbul

Pycnonotus tricolor

Here all year

What it sounds like

A cheerful, liquid chatter often written as sweet-potato, and a scolding rattle when a cat appears.

How to recognise it

Probably the most common garden bird here, and a good one to learn first. Brown, with a neat dark crest and a bright yellow patch under the tail. Bold around people, fond of fruit, and reliably the first bird to tell the whole garden that something is wrong.