Product Description

A best-selling field guide from the best nature publisher in the UKThe Collins Complete British Birds makes bird identification easier than ever before. It is the most complete field guide to British birds ever published and the only one to be designed to give everything that you need on each spread in a simple to use format. Every text entry covers indentification of adults and juvenilles, songs and calls, and where they are most likely to be found. Illustrated with specially commissioned photography and maps to show where in Britain the birds are found, in which months and cross-references to similar-looking species, it contains everything a birdwatcher needs to know in one, easy-to-use, portable volume and is the perfect photographic field guide for the birdwatching beginner.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #121234 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Burton Mail
An excellent volume for all birdwatchers, particulary beginners.

Bird Watching
There is no doubt that this is by far the best photographic fieldguide currently available.

Times Weekend Review - Derwent May
One of the best collections of photographs for identification purposes that I have ever seen.

Customer Reviews

Highly readible and excellent photographs
Collins Complete British Birds Photoguide has everything you would ever need in a bird book. It gives a very detailed introduction to British birds and a highly useful section on bird habitats, plumage, migration and movements and conservation at the start of the book without making the text sound too boring.

The photographs in the book are absolutely superb and show birds in every plumage; male and female, adult or juvenile, summer or winter and they are very clear. Each species account gives a description of plumage patterns, voice, where the bird is likely to be found and its status in the country at large, and also (which I found very useful) a bit on where the best place to find the bird is and at what time of year, the distribution maps are very clear and include a calendar bar to show if the bird in question is a year round resident or a visitor.

I found the text very easy to read (unlike most bird books which tend to be very scientific and hard to understand) and is a great book to have. Buy it, I guarantee you will not be wasting your money.

Excellent bird guide
This is the best bird indentifying book I've seen.
A great layout. Photos (not sketches) of each bird including male, female, juvenile....It also includes information on each bird size, voice, migration, habitat and areas. Also there are pictures of 'uncommon' visitor birds at the back and a lovely general introduction of habitats at the front of the book.

Terrific Photography
If truth be told most of the birds books for sale these days are excellent for identification purposes. Printing techniques, particularly with the use of colour have improved dramatically and a book that would have cost £100 not many years ago, can now be purchased for a tenth of the price.

This book is full of good quality colour photographs that are ideal for identification. The book also tell you where in the British Isles a particular species is usually to be found. Whether the bird is to be found all year round or whether it is just a visitor to our shores. It also shows the birds in their different plumage: Male and female, juvenile etc.

Modern bird books consciously do not show photographs of eggs and I must admit it is something I miss, although I totally understand the reasoning behind it. All in all this is another of a number of books that are well worth purchasing if you have either a passing interest in birds or are more serious about bird watching.