Large Egg Found in City Garden

Thank you for answering - curiouser and curiouser… an amateur twitcher friend of friend has suggested a pheasant’s egg? Looking at Google images it may well be (and that would explain it being found just lying in the grass). However, this is in the midst of urban Birmingham sprawl?

You mention a small wooded area - that could just be enough for a bird to find cover and safety.

But it could also have been dropped/left by a predator, which was disturbed - hence the small crack.

We have urban foxes and other now more common-place animals coming into/around the suburbs of cities as we build on/destroy wild spaces.

It's definitely not a Pheasant egg. Do you have Common Buzzards in the area?
It looks more likely for Common Buzzard. Shape and markings can be quite variable, but it's close.

Downside would be that it's very late for Buzzards still to be sitting on eggs.

Thanks so much for all of your replies. Still perplexed after Googling the v helpful suggestions, but it seems they don’t quite fit the appearance (although obvs I’m green in this area). To answer, the small wooded area is enough for cover and we do have foxes. The crack is v tiny and may have even occurred when my husband cleaned it up? From what I can see the shape isn’t the same as a duck egg? It’s quite pointed at the top and tapers inwards from a much wider bottom, giving it a more conical appearance. It’s speckled with lighter/beige markings than a buzzard’s egg from the images I can see online? The plot thickens!

Neighbours have returned and famed egg has been shown - not like any that have been produced by their hens. Mystery still unsolved?!

Reckon you could be right Robbo!