Britain's Birds An Identification Guide to the Birds of Great Britain and Ireland

It would seem that every 10-15 years, a field guide arrives which is a step-change. Sometimes the new guide replaces an existing benchmark, sometimes it complements. 'Britain’s Birds: An Identification Guide to the Birds of Great Britain and Ireland' first published in 2016 was one of those step changes with something new and significant to become a key reference. If I may offer my conclusion upfront, this book in its extensively revised second edition is a book which every serious birder would want to have for reference. It is subtitled an ‘Identification Guide’, but I think it is better described as a ‘Photographic Identification Handbook’. It is the best example yet of this genre I have seen. Although its scope is Britain and Ireland, birders across Europe and Asia will find many of the book’s photographic identification essays very useful.

A book such as this, collating what has been published in the identification literature and visualising that knowledge through the use of multiple photographs is an enormous task. It is no surprise that this was undertaken by WILDGuides (now an imprint of Princeton University Press) because two of the authors Andy Swash (a photographer) and Robert Still are a part of the publishing team of WILDGuides. All of the authors and principal photographers have undoubtedly contributed to make the book what it is. But I shall comment on Robert Still who is also a highly skilled digital artist. He has been honing his skills on these books for over two decades. Some of the photographic montages are in their own right, works of digital art, seamlessly blending in multiple images of birds into a natural background. A combination of skilled naturalists and photographers who can write and photograph together with someone like Still who can make complex layouts look easy, has made WILDGuides a force in British natural history publishing.

To provide a balanced review, I think a comparison with the 'Collins Bird Guide' (by Lars Svensson, Killian Mullarney and Dan Zetterstrom) is necessary. The 'Collins Bird Guide' appeared in 1999 after 17 years in preparation by a team of accomplished ornithologists. It was so good and such a significant improvement over anything else which existed, it was hard to imagine how another book in a field guide format could improve on it. Indeed 20 years later in a second edition, it remains an essential reference and a book I frequently see people using in the field. In 2017, Princeton also published a photographic field guide by Frédéric Jiguet and Aurélian Audevard ('Birds of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East'). Although the page count and shape is similar to the 'Collins', it is different in style and is an alternative for those who prefer a less text-heavy, photographic guide.

So why is 'Britain’s Birds' such an important book? Very simply, no other book serves as such a comprehensive photographic identification handbook to the birds of Britain and Ireland. The second edition is even heftier (576 pages) and with a larger shape and noticeably heavier than both the ‘Collins’ (448 pages) and the ‘Jiguet’ (447 pages). 'Britain’s Birds' does fit into the pockets of my Country Innovation jacket which is designed for birders. However, where weight or portability is a consideration, the ‘Collins, the ‘Jiguet’ or even the excellent 'The Mitchell Beazley Birdwatcher’s Pocket Guide' by Peter Hayman will be higher up in the list of contenders. All three of the other books I have mentioned are outstanding in their own way as field guides. 'Britain’s Birds' has created its own niche as the shape, page count and weight make it clear it is not trying to compete in the portable and lightweight field guide market. It uses the extra page area and the page count to be a nearly all-encompassing identification reference. However, it is more; it is also quite a pleasurable book to thumb through for people at different levels of skill and experience. No doubt the advanced birders will relish the pages on difficult groups such as gulls and waders and be entertained and informed by the identification essays on topics such as the ‘Iceland Gull complex’. But both beginners and advanced birders will find a wealth of information on common and not difficult to identify birds which are rich in information which may have escaped them before. The maps are in the vein of infographics and tell us from where and what sort of numbers of a species migrate to Britain. How many people are mindful of a vast influx of Robins into Britain? The next time you have a close view of a Jackdaw, consider; is that a ‘British/Irish’ or a ‘Nordic’?
Being an advanced birder is an expensive business. Besides the cost of travel and equipment, there is the cost of a large personal library with family monographs and ID-centric books and multiple subscriptions to journals and magazines which carry papers on ID topics. This book is an inexpensive way to head start with much of the ID-centric information encapsulated in it. The second edition is updated to include all species and subspecies recorded in Britain and Ireland up to the point of publication. Thus, the expanded section on the Pied/White Wagtail sees the inclusion of Masked Wagtail, which coincidentally is the subject of a paper in the journal 'British Birds' in May 2020 when the second edition of 'Britain’s Birds' was released.

To me, one of the strengths of the book is the details it offers on the everyday birds. With the Starling, for example, it shows not only the change in bill colour from black to yellow between winter and summer but the subtle distinction between an adult female and an adult male in summer. The image composites are a matter of taste. Some may find them busy and may prefer to have more white space as in the ‘Collins’ or as in the ‘Jiguet’. I can’t make up my mind. More white space would have been pleasing on the eye and may make some of the pages less overwhelming. On the other hand the habitat detail which comes out, allows this information to be processed unconsciously.

Pages such as those on separating the three species of golden plovers, the page on ‘Yellow-legged and Caspian Gull Identification’, the ID sections on pipits and Acrocephalus warblers are a treat and demonstrate the enormous amount of work that would have gone into reading papers in many journals and bringing it together in a way that is easy for the reader to take in the key ID messages. Having written and photographed for photographic field guides, I am in awe at the work that has gone into this book. It’s a special book with the rare quality where bird watchers who are fairly new to birding, as well as those who are very advanced, will find many details that pique their interest and will progress their development as birders. The pricing is fantastic value for money and I suspect those who have the first edition will not begrudge purchasing the improved and updated second edition.

I have about 20 different bird guides and this is by far the best. Such clear photographs and excellent descriptions. Highly recommend people get this guide even if they have others. Just look at the gulls section if you need convincing of how comprehensive it is.