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RSPB Pocket Guide to British Birds: Second edition Paperback – Illustrated, 21 Aug. 2018

by Simon Harrap (Author)

5,378 ratings

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RSPB Pocket Guide to British Birds
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A compact, lightweight and informative guide to 215 of the UK's most common birds.

Featuring 950 colour illustrations and 215 up-to-date colour distribution maps, this new edition of RSPB Pocket Guide to British Birds showcases 215 bird species regularly seen in the UK.

Each species is illustrated in all distinct plumage forms likely to be observed in the wild, and includes concise and succinct descriptions, with details on identification, calls and song, habitat, distribution and behaviour. Along with helpful distribution maps, the species accounts also feature confusion species, with their most important and easily noted differences described.

Portable and easy-to-use, RSPB Pocket Guide to British Birds is the perfect guide for use in the field.

Print length

224 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Bloomsbury Wildlife
Publication date

21 Aug. 2018
Dimensions

11.53 x 1.32 x 17.09 cm
ISBN-10

1472962621
ISBN-13

978-1472962621
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Product description

Review

Simon Harrap goes back to basics with all-new text in a colourful guide aimed at new bird-watchers. ― Good Book Guide

A sumptuous, classy book, with terrific illustrations of a carefully selected 174 species ― BBC Wildlife

An excellent book to buy as a present for beginner birdwatching friends or to keep in the car. ― Scottish Birds

An excellent beginner's guide. ― IBIS - The International Journal of Avian Science

Book Description

A compact, lightweight and informative guide to 215 of the most common birds found in Britain. It features concise descriptions of each bird's main characteristics including plumage, calls, confusion species, habitat and includes distribution maps and detailed illustrations.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury Wildlife; 2nd edition (21 Aug. 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1472962621
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1472962621
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 11.53 x 1.32 x 17.09 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 8,932 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 5 in Wild Birds
- 14 in Birds (Books)
- 18 in Birdwatching (Books)

Customer reviews:
5,378 ratings

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5 star		82%
4 star		14%
3 star		3%
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Diane s

Easy to understand

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 March 2019

Verified Purchase

Wasn't sure which book to buy as you cannot look inside, but this one my partner loves as description and pictures make it easy to identify, and all in a handy carry size.

121 people found this helpful

Helpful

Bluesman 57

Pocket guide, absolutely packed with hints and facts

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 July 2022

Verified Purchase

This is an excellent pocket guide with a so much information. It is ideal for the beginner, but there is more then enough for seasoned birders. It is well laid out and superbly illustrated. The descriptions are excellent, and they include identification pitfalls, which include some 'confusion' species. The key facts include the current UK distribution maps, plus the current numbers of breeding pairs and winter visitors, which is really useful and something missing other guides. For a pocket guide it is so informative and for a little over the price of a magazine, you cannot go wrong.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Pooh Bear

More than enough info to start you off.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 January 2020

Verified Purchase

I seem to be becoming a bit of a bird geek. In the build up to my first big garden bird watch I felt I needed to be armed with more information than the basic knowledge I had. I have been looking into getting a book for a while after being gifted a bird feeder by a neighbour. There is great pleasure to be had in the whole process of feeding birds, and watching their feeding patterns.
Although I was drawn initially to more complex bird identifying books, I plumped on this one as a start off, after reading many reviews about the complexity of identifying birds. Such small differences in some instances, but I think I'm getting the hang of it although you do have to be quite close (several starlings landed, but I had to get closer than my window to clarify and what amazing detail they have, so subtle, but beautiful).
I like this as it's fairly simple. I like the little maps identifying where you're likely to see the birds (which helps limit your identification) I think anything more complicated might have blown my little head and put me off so really glad I purchased this.
Bird food and book at the ready......

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comprehensive and easy to use reference guide

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 May 2022

Verified Purchase

The days of the book as a field guide are coming to an end as books are heavy and bulky while smartphone apps are not.
As they go though, this book is quite light and will fit in a large coat pocket. The habitat maps are useful and the painted pictures of the birds are really excellent and show the birds much better than photographs found in some other guides.
There is also rather more information about the birds than is found on many bird identification web apps making the book a pleasure to browse through and explore from within a rainy tent or holiday cottage on on of those inevitable British holiday days that are rained off.
Also, of course, the book does not require internet access which often is not available out in the best of Britain's parks and remote wild lands.

Helpful

IntensiveCareNurse

Fab.. Great starter book for we newbies!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 February 2020

Verified Purchase

Just over £3 delivered next day on prime, fits into your pocket and colour coded pages for finding birds for identification quickly.
There is enough info on each bird without overdoing it and once you get used to it, the coloured drawings (there are no photos) are really all you need.
There have been points when I have been pretty sure on a bird given the drawing and other info but not certain, at which point it is easy to just google photos on your phone.
Photos as well would therefore be better, but at the cost of making the book bigger and more onerous for quick identification.
On that basis I would say leave it as is..
It's a perfect little volume :)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 January 2022

Verified Purchase

My partner is getting more into bird spotting and struggles to identify birds at the feeder, so thought I'd get her this little book. She loves it and keeps it to hand by the window. There have been a couple we've had to identify through an internet search though as this book only shows birds native to the UK, so may need to get a book that includes more species at some point, but its a good starting point and nicely illustrated.

Helpful

M. Gaunt

Good guide, plenty of detail and information in it without being too detailed.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 March 2021

Verified Purchase

I bought this as, during lockdown, me and my mum and dad were home all of the time and were looking out into the garden watching the birds a lot more often than normal and we actually saw some birds that we weren’t sure of. Also, I saw advertised on TV and on Facebook the big garden birdwatching event, which I decided I would do - so, I bought this small pocket guide to birds. It has enough detail and info in for me - not too much, it’s just right for what I wanted. And obviously I found the names of the birds that had been in our garden. We’ve since bought a bird feeding ‘station’ too.

Helpful

Deborah C.

Very useful pocket guide, but order of sections is a bit random

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 June 2020

Verified Purchase

I bought this book for my friend you has just started up birdwatching. She loves the guide. The illustration and text are excellent as are the distribution maps. It is also the perfect size for taking out in the field. My friend has only one criticism. There doesn't seem to be a logical order to the sections on different types of birds. For instance, the section on owls appears five sections after the section on birds of prey. Instead of being groups on the sections that include other small birds, the section on sparrows, finches and buntings follows the section on shrikes and crows. It means that you cannot easily flick through sections with relatively similar birds. It wouldn't be a big problem for an experience birdwatcher, but as a beginner my friend had found it rather frustrating at times. Nonetheless, she would recommend the book to others and I would buy it again.

Helpful

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