Discover the wonderful world of birdwatching with wildlife cameraman Hamza Yassin.
Journey along with Hamza as he recounts stories of his birdwatching adventures and shares tips and tricks in this beautifully illustrated guide for beginning birders. With practical advice and personal anecdotes, you will learn how to get started in birdwatching and hone your identification skills to become an experienced twitcher.
Whether you need a companion on your next expedition or simply wish to dip in and out as you learn more, Be a Birder is fit for every purpose, and encourages us all to discover the joy of birdwatching. Inside you will learn how to quickly identify birds, what different bird behaviour means, the most useful birding equipment to take and the best places to see the most exciting birds, wherever you are.
Whether you're spotting common garden birds or hoping to catch sight of the more obscure, Be a Birder invites us all to stop, step outside and listen, and open our eyes to the beauty of these incredible creatures. With Hamza as your guide, you will be able to build your birdwatching confidence and push yourself further afield to find new feathered wonders.
Hamza Yassin is a Scottish wildlife cameraman and presenter, a skilled ornithologist and the winner of the 2022 season of Strictly Come Dancing. Born in Sudan, Hamza Yassin moved to Scotland when he was young. He has a degree in Zoology with Conservation after studying at Bangor University and a Master's in Biological Photography and Imaging from the University of Nottingham. He made his first television appearance on the CBeebies show Let's Go for a Walk, in the role of Ranger Hamza, and was featured in a book based on the series, which won the Sainsbury's Children's Book Prize for Best Activity Book 2021. Since then, Hamza has appeared on The One Show, Countryfile and is a presenter on the long-running BBC series Animal Park. Hamza has also presented his own Channel 4 documentaries, Scotland: My Life in the Wild and Scotland: Escape to the Wilderness, and was the podcast host of the second series of Get Birding.
– Longlisted for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize Longlist 2024 for UK Nature Writing
"He is delight and joy personified"
– Marian Keyes
"Set to become BBC's next David Attenborough"
– Daily Mail
"Brings a little bit of joy to us all"
– Guardian