British Birds: A photographic guide to every common species (Collins Complete Guide)

Great book, the photos are so helpful, making identification quick and easy!

Another book in the Collin's range with clear photographs to make bird id easy. Good size to carry in your bag or look at as a reference book. Lots of good information.

The photographs in this book are excellent and really make identification of birds easy.

I bought this book to try and recognise all the various birds which have been visiting my birds feeders in the garden over the year. The excellent photographs in it make is really easy to determine which bird is which, especially as many of them can look so similiar. The birds don't stay for long so being able to look at a photo quickly to determine the species is great. Much easier to determine type of bird than the other books I have which just have drawn/painted images of birds, which I feel are not always the most accurate. The book covers all birds in the British Isles and is divided into types eg: finches, tits, warblers etc with a map by each bird image showing where they are most likely to be seen. There is also description of the bird and its lifestyle, habitat, when and where you are likely to see a particular bird. For a beginner or expert bird watcher I feel this book is a excellent reference book to own and as a beginner, I find the book very easy to navigate through and find out the information I require. Very pleased with purchase.

Lovely book and well illustrated

Good quality informative

I bought this book in conjunction with the Collins Bird Guide by Lars Svensson to replace a handbook and guide lost in transit whilst moving house. To be honest my original guides were getting on in years and I needed to update anyway but I am blown away by both of these books! The Paul Sterry Complete Guide To British Birds is exactly what I wanted for the field and the Collins Bird Guide is great for a more in depth study or identification. I am a reasonably competent birder who is working toward ticking off a list of species from a pocket book I bought in 1989 and these books will assist me greatly now that I have reached a point of having to actively seek out the less common species. The Photographic Guide provides excellent plates of adult/juvenile birds both perched and in flight but the best bit for me is that each species has a section entitled observation tips telling you where in the country and when in the year to visit to have your best shot at finding it. The Lars Svensson book is a lot more detailed and covers species from accross Europe so provides another great source of information. Buy them both, download a birdsong App for the smartphone and I don't think you'll need anything else whilst birding in the UK. A DEFINITE MUST BUY!

For me, as someone very new to ornithology as a hobby, I found this book exceptionally useful. Firstly, I find it much easier to look at the photographs of the birds to identify the birds that I am seeing, rather than drawings of birds. This is particularly the case where species are similar, and in some cases I find I can't sufficiently distinguish between the birds. This book is excellent, as it shows you photos of each species, and also the variations between males, females and young birds. Furthermore, the book is extremely useful in that where birds are often misidentified, it includes a "often confused with" prompt in the text, so you can double-check to make sure you have identified the right bird. My husband and I find this book invaluable, and a wonderful guide to all of the wild birds around us! I would highly recommend this book to any novice bird watching hobbyist!

I used this book to identify all the birds I had seen on a recent trip to Norfolk, England. I must prefer photos to painted birds, and this book delivers that beautifully. I found all of my "unsure" species and the book is in tip top shape.