Garden bird book

[dc2009]

Am looking for a relatively cheap, compact and simple book to help with identifying garden birds. Preferably one with pictures and descriptions of when they are seen in gardens, what/where they eat/nest etc. for the most common garden birds.

Can anyone help to recommend one? The net's quite good but by the time you get online often the birds gone and it's difficult to then match it to an image...

Thanks :-)

[Ruth Daniel]

The Birdwatchers Pocket Guide published by Mitchell-Beazley is a good one to start with,I've got 2 copies the old one I take out birding with me.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Birdwatchers...3506585&sr=8-2

This Collins Guide is probably the best that I have tho;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Bird...ref=pd_sim_b_1

[aeshna5]

The Collins Bird Guide is probably the best id guide on the market; but I feel this has too much in it for the op's original request as it covers all the birds of Europe + Middle East too. Also it is a field guide so does tell you much about the birds themselves apart from habitat.

If you just want garden birds there are a lot of suitable garden bird boooks around now such as Stephen Moss Complete Garden Bird Book.

[dc2009]

Hey!

Thanks for the advice.

Have had a look at them on Amazon and all look good, have also seen another one by Stephen Moss: Garden Birds which seems good too, so may get one of these!

[Astra]

I have both the Collins and the Mitchell-Beazley guides and they are excellent.
BUT I find the best beginners "garden" book is the Birds of Britain and Ireland by John Gooders.
It's been published in several formats but at the moment it can be found as a Kingfisher Pocket Guide.
It's missing a few updates such as Mealy and Common Redpolls and doesn't include RN Parakeets, but it includes distribution maps, month by month abundance chart, good clear drawings, information about food, calls, nests and eggs so at £5.24 I think it's well worth it!

Take a look here-

Birds of Britain and Ireland (Kingfisher Pocket Guides): Gooders: Amazon.co.uk: Books

[bobbarber]

Another good book on garden birds is `The Garden Bird Bird Book` by Sarah Whittley and published by the B.T.O. It gives details on voice, length, wingspan, nesting, food, identification points, and confusion species. The book covers the top 70 birds likely to be seen in U.K. gardens based on data from the last 10 years. The illustrations show on average 3 different poses clearly showing different points of identification...Bob

[Tringa]

Have a look at the link to the handbook on this page -

CJ WildBird Foods [UK]. Wild Bird food, seed, feeders, nest boxes, bird houses, water baths and more. Online Shop

I think its an excellent book and its FREE.

[Fieldfare95]

I bought Collins Garden Birds by Detlef Singer for 50p!