British Birds: A Pocket Guide (WILDGuides, 114)

I bought this as a present because my own bird books are woefully inadequate. It is small and neat and easy to carry. At a quick glance all the birds on the page look very similar. But used at the RSPB site the other day we could definitively say that the colony of geese by the lake was all Canada geese and not the greylag variety.

Libro ben fatto e interessante, utile per inziare a conoscere gli uccelli.

With this outstanding pocket guide to British birds, the much-respected team from WILDGuides have exceeded all expectations and carried the standard field guide to an entirely new level. Although like many birders I was never previously an enthusiast of photographic guides, Britain’s Birds: An Identification Guide to the Birds of Britain and Ireland published in 2016 established a new high standard for this type of presentation, employing as it did more than 3,200 stunning colour photographs, brilliantly presented on the page with a highly readable and very informative text. This Pocket Guide now builds on these solid foundations and in so doing goes much further in enhancing the appeal of this style of presentation. Needless to say, the photographs are absolutely superb in terms of quality and, equally important, their selection reflects an unerring judgement as to their ability to convey precisely the identification points most needed in the field. Indeed, it is not an exaggeration to say that the presentation of so much information on so many different photographs in such a small volume is a remarkable triumph for those responsible and they deserve to be warmly congratulated for their achievement. Although the text is relatively brief it is well written, comprehensive and systematic in content on the basis of what I suspect was a carefully composed format document to which the text writers adhered closely. Moreover, much of this abridgment is the result of careful editing, which has deleted much detail about obvious identification features that can be easily absorbed with a cursory glance at the photograph – a trick which too many field guides still fail to achieve with the result that the reader often ends up ploughing through over-lengthy and frankly unnecessary descriptions without gaining much new understanding. Certainly the combination of the text and photographs gives an extremely clear insight into those key identification features and distribution details that one does not always find in competitive efforts.At a practical level, this volume also has the great merit of fitting into most coat pockets – again, a feature not shared by all identification guides that purport to be easily portable in the field. In part this has been achieved by reducing the number of species covered with a focus on the 248 most likely to be seen in Britain and Ireland, although it illustrates a handful of ‘escapes’ that may be encountered free flying and 45 rarer species which turn up each year in small numbers. But in truth, this narrower species focus is not a weakness. As David Lindo notes in the Foreword, for many new to birding the inclusion of every possible confusion species can lead to much heartache and frustration, not to mention some wildly implausible records on the early life list. As he himself admits, ‘as a kid I was forever on the lookout for a Azure Tits, the eastern counterpart of the far more familiar Blue Tit, because they were featured and compared on the same page.’ But the size and coverage of the book should in no way lead us to the erroneous conclusion this is for beginners or casual bird walkers. Certainly we should not assume that because all of this is packed into a concise 272 pages it is not brimming with useful factual information which will be of interest and value to many experienced birders as well to the inexperienced novice.Comparison between the Pocket Guide and its WILDGuides predecessor also reveals some interesting innovations and improvements. One of the most obvious features of this book is that rather than simply abridging the original volume and using the previous plates, an extremely large number of new and highly attractive page layouts have been introduced. Above all, it is impossible not to be impressed by the vast number of new and better photographs of a large proportion of the species illustrated. The overview plates, providing direct comparison between the different species within a group are all extremely useful – for example, ‘Auks compared in-flight’ (pp.74-75) is just one of many comparative presentations of flight identification of major families and groups, and they are universally excellent in both style and content. At the beginning of each family section there is also an overview which gives general identification features and prioritises the key elements to be observed in the field. As one would expect, the introductory section on how to use the book, bird physiology, the systematic analysis of types of bird and habitats all provide information of value to the more experienced birder as well as a complete novice.Overall, therefore, I would strongly recommend this new volume to all those interested in birds from the casual garden observer through to far more experienced birders. For the novice and the less experienced birder and those just ‘interested in birds’ I would say that the decision to buy is a no-brainer. For those perhaps more experienced birders who object that they already own the much larger (and heavier) Britain’s Birds which does literally cover every species recorded in Britain up until 2016 I would argue that this new volume is lightweight, capable of easily being carried in a pocket, it covers all the birds likely to be seen in Britain and Ireland, and on top of all of that a retail price of £9.95 would appear to be outrageously good value for money for what is being delivered - if only for the new photographs and the innovative enhancements of the text. Conversely, if you don’t own the predecessor volume you really should add it to your library for the additional coverage it offers across the full British list and the sheer quality of what it contains.Professor Bob Self

Well written excellent pictures very informative

Nothing to dislike a good informative little book.