Queen Elizabeth II prefers to spend her birthday in Sandringham, Norfolk while the country is to celebrate it with gun salutes, the release of a Barbie doll and a new photograph showing the monarch with two white ponies at Windsor Castle.

Government ministers joined members of the royal family in sending their best wishes to the queen, who has stepped back from most public duties this year over concerns about her health.

"An inspiration to so many across the U.K., the Commonwealth, and the world, it's particularly special to be celebrating in this Platinum Jubilee year," a message from the queen's grandson Prince William and his wife Kate said on Twitter.

The monarch's birthday will be marked by a gun salute in London's Hyde Park and the release of a photograph showing the queen, dressed in a long dark green coat, standing between two white ponies.

A Barbie doll dressed in an ivory gown with a blue sash was also released to mark the celebration of the queen's Platinum Jubilee this year. It will also feature a tiara modeled on Queen Mary's fringe tiara, which the Queen wore on her wedding day. The pink ribbon on the doll imitates one given to the Queen by her father George VI, and the pale blue imitates one from her grandfather George V.

The doll will be part of Barbie's Tribute Collection, which was launched last year in celebration of "visionary individuals with an outstanding impact and legacy within society."

Elizabeth became the queen of Britain and more than a dozen other realms including Canada, Australia and New Zealand on the death of her father King George VI on Feb. 6, 1952, while she was in Kenya on an international tour.

The news was broken to her by her husband Prince Philip, who died last year aged 99 after more than seven decades by her side.

When she ascended the throne, Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong and Harry Truman were running the Soviet Union, China and the United States, respectively, while Winston Churchill was British prime minister.