RSPB Guide to Birdwatching
When I think back to the days when I started birdwatching in the 1970s, there were relatively few books to help you figure out how to watch birds. You had to rely on meeting like minds in order to ‘learn the ropes’. Had this book been available back then, I expect my ability to both understand and master the hobby would have rapidly improved.
The first section, entitled ‘Getting started’, uses eight clear steps to teach us about the individual physical adaptations and structure of birds. It also explains how and why birds sing, and why some birds don’t have a song. The next part introduces the tools of the trade – optical equipment, clothing and books. It also tells you how to interpret distribution maps, and how to keep your own detailed and useful notes. There is a general introduction to classification and the various bird groups. The third chapter, ‘Finding the birds’, runs through the main habitat types. Other sections cover basic behaviour and biology, bird feeding and nestboxes.
The closing chapter provides all the links you need to take your hobby forward, whether that’s conservation volunteering, joining a club, taking part in surveys, ringing or taking photographs. There is a checklist of 270 of the most regularly occurring British birds, although it would have been helpful to indicate their particular abundance and the times of the year that you are likely to see them.
Of course, one can’t learn fieldcraft from a book but, if a complete novice were locked up and forced to read this book from cover to cover, I think that on their release, they could convince a large number of birders that they had many years of experience!
Tech spec
• RSPB Guide to Birdwatching – a Step-by-Step Approach by Mike Unwin
(A & C Black, London, 2008).
• 176 pages, numerous photos.
• ISBN 9780713679434. Pbk, £12.99.
Available from Birdwatch bookshop
First published in Birdwatch 203:52 (May 2009)