Expert advice on how to get closer to and see more birds in the wild. Details essential equipment for both beginners and improvers and profiles the 267 most commonly seen British and European species. Also provides information on over 200 great birdwatching sites in 26 European countries.
What is a bird?: evolution and diversity; anatomy; senses; flight;
migration; feeding; courtship; nesting; rearing. Getting started: observing
with binoculars; scopes and tripods; photography; notes and sketches;
bringing birds to you; creating bird habitats. In the field: rocky, sandy and
shingle shores; open seas and cliffs; estuaries, mudflats and salt-marshes;
rivers and marshes; lakes, reservoirs and gravel pits; heath and moorland;
Mediterranean scrub; farmland; mountains; woodlands; parks and gardens. How
to identify: size and shape; identification in flight; colour and markings;
bird behaviour; vocal communication; habitat; range and abundance; time of
year. Species by species: families and species; divers and grebes; petrels,
shearwaters, gannets and cormorants; herons; storks, flamingos and
spoonbills; wildfowl; birds of prey; gamebirds; cranes, rails and crakes;
waders; skuas, gulls, terns and auks; pigeons and doves; owls and nightjars;
kingfishers, swifts and cuckoos; woodpeckers; larks; martins and swallows;
pipits and wagtails; wrens, dippers, waxwings and accentors; chats and
thrushes; warblers; flycatchers; tits, nuthatches and treecreepers; shrikes;
crows and orioles; starlings; sparrows; finches; buntings. Where to watch:
England; Scotland; Wales; Ireland and Northern Ireland; Denmark; Sweden;
Norway; Finland; Iceland; France; Germany; Belgium; the Netherlands; Poland;
Hungary; Romania; Slovenia, Croatia and Yugoslavia; Switzerland; Austria;
Spain and Portugal; Italy; Greece; Turkey.
Rob Hume is an author, writer, editor, lifelong birdwatcher, and bird tour leader who has worked for the RSPB for 24 years. He edits the society's Birds magazine, which has a readership of 1.8 million and he lives in Sandy, Bedfordshire.
