1.5 Learning Resources

The Collins Bird Guide, now in its 3rd edition, is perhaps the most used field guide for British bird identification. It is information dense, and tries to be as portable as possible, though this means the font is quite small. It also uses painted plates to represent the birds, rather than photographs.

Britain’s Birds, published by WILDGuides, is another good option, though the full book (with a robin on the front), is even less portable than the Collin’s guide. The pocket version is therefore a useful book, though lacks the full detail of the larger.

Unlike the Collins guide it uses photographs rather than painted artwork. This really comes down to personal preference as to what you prefer.

Another useful book is the RSPB Guide to Bird song, by Adrian Thomas. Here you can read in much more detail about the seven qualities of sound, and find a range of species and their vocalisations detailed.