Here are 100 books that Where to Watch Birds in Britain fans have personally recommended if you like
Where to Watch Birds in Britain.
Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.
I have been immersed in nature since I was able to walk, my love for nature initially inspired by a chance encounter as a toddler with a buzzard amid South Devon’s leafy lanes. Upon fledging into adult plumage, I eventually became an award-winning wildlife and travel writer. After returning to Britain after several years leading wildlife tours in South America and Antarctica, I had an irrepressible desire to renew my relationship with British nature. My books 52 Wildlife Weekends, A Summer of British Wildlife (winner, Travel Guidebook of the Year, 2016) and Much Ado About Mothing (a travel narrative longlisted for the 2022 James Cropper Wainwright Prize) are the result.
Although this book is also rather dated, it remains a fine source of information – and particularly of inspiration.
It truly opened my eyes to the mammal-watching possibilities available in Britain and Ireland, and informed plenty of the travel involved in researching two of my own books. Get hold of a second-hand copy if you can, and treasure it!
Britain's mammals are relatively few in number, but include some notoriously hard-to-see, yet wonderfully charismatic species. There can be few people with even a passing interest in wildlife who would not want to see otters, red squirrels, bottle-nosed dolphins or Scottish wildcats. Even commoner species like the badger, roe deer and brown hare can be difficult to see without some specialist knowledge. This new guide provides sites and useful information to enable the reader to find and observe every British and Irish mammal species, including all marine mammals. Taking a species-by-species approach, the accounts give some background detail on the…
I have been immersed in nature since I was able to walk, my love for nature initially inspired by a chance encounter as a toddler with a buzzard amid South Devon’s leafy lanes. Upon fledging into adult plumage, I eventually became an award-winning wildlife and travel writer. After returning to Britain after several years leading wildlife tours in South America and Antarctica, I had an irrepressible desire to renew my relationship with British nature. My books 52 Wildlife Weekends, A Summer of British Wildlife (winner, Travel Guidebook of the Year, 2016) and Much Ado About Mothing (a travel narrative longlisted for the 2022 James Cropper Wainwright Prize) are the result.
Now on its second edition, this is a remarkable, unique book. It helped me greatly understand Britain’s landscapes and environments – how our country fits together.
Written accessibly by experienced ecologists, it also started me thinking about wildlife and plantlife assemblages – different animals and plants that might co-exist at a single site – which was critical when I was researching my book. An absolute must on your library shelf.
A comprehensive and lavishly illustrated photographic guide-now in a handy field-guide format
This lavishly illustrated photographic guide provides a comprehensive overview of the natural history of wildlife habitats in Britain and Ireland. Now completely redesigned in a handy field-guide format, and featuring revised and updated text throughout, this new edition of Britain's Habitats guides readers through all the main habitat types, presenting information on their characteristics, extent, geographical variation, key species, cultural importance, origins and conservation. It aims to help visitors to the countryside recognize the habitats around them, understand how they have evolved and what makes them special, and…
I have been immersed in nature since I was able to walk, my love for nature initially inspired by a chance encounter as a toddler with a buzzard amid South Devon’s leafy lanes. Upon fledging into adult plumage, I eventually became an award-winning wildlife and travel writer. After returning to Britain after several years leading wildlife tours in South America and Antarctica, I had an irrepressible desire to renew my relationship with British nature. My books 52 Wildlife Weekends, A Summer of British Wildlife (winner, Travel Guidebook of the Year, 2016) and Much Ado About Mothing (a travel narrative longlisted for the 2022 James Cropper Wainwright Prize) are the result.
In my view, this is the finest field guide ever produced for a group of animals or plants.
It is not only the best guide available to identify this most spectacular of floral groups when in flower – but also helps you put names to them when mere leaves growing up or when in seed, and on the way out. Throw in excellent, up-to-date maps, and you have a wonderful field guide that inspires you to explore Britain like never before.
An accessible, comprehensive and beautifully illustrated guide-the only one to cover all the orchids found in Britain and Ireland
Covering all fifty-one native species and twelve of uncertain origin, as well as hybrids and variants, Britain's Orchids is an engaging, intuitive and in-depth identification guide to all the orchids of Britain and Ireland at all stages of development, from first emergence to setting seed. Drawing on the authors' extensive field experience and the latest scientific research, the book uses multiple techniques to help both beginner and more advanced orchid enthusiasts to identify even the most difficult plants. It is beautifully…
I have been immersed in nature since I was able to walk, my love for nature initially inspired by a chance encounter as a toddler with a buzzard amid South Devon’s leafy lanes. Upon fledging into adult plumage, I eventually became an award-winning wildlife and travel writer. After returning to Britain after several years leading wildlife tours in South America and Antarctica, I had an irrepressible desire to renew my relationship with British nature. My books 52 Wildlife Weekends, A Summer of British Wildlife (winner, Travel Guidebook of the Year, 2016) and Much Ado About Mothing (a travel narrative longlisted for the 2022 James Cropper Wainwright Prize) are the result.
Moths are the underdogs of the animal kingdom – unfairly castigated as pests and associated with evil darkness.
I wrote my book to set the story straight. Decades earlier, publisher P.B.M. Allan had done these insects a considerable service, showcasing Britain’s remarkable moths and relating, in a jocular fashion, his escapades across Britain to see many of them.
Reading his book, I came to appreciate quite what diversity of moths Britain harbours – and was inspired by his enthusiasm to go out and see them for myself. The moth hunter’s gossip is long out of print, but can often be tracked down at second-hand retailers.
Having grown up on the south coast of Hampshire, I love both the countryside and the sea. After studying ancient history, archaeology, and Latin at the University of Bristol, I worked for many years as a field archaeologist and met my husband Roy on an excavation of a Roman villa at Milton Keynes. We have worked together ever since, as archaeologists and as authors of books on archaeology, ancient history, naval history, and social history. Our wide-ranging interests proved invaluable when writing our book When There Were Birds.
The author was one of the earliest (if not the earliest) to write a history of a subject using a specific number of objects. In this book, he describes the development of observing birds through the medium of 100 objects, of which a surprising selection is presented, all well illustrated, from prehistoric paintings to more recent technology. Possibly the most curious is a stuffed extinct dodo at the Horniman Museum in London. It was actually a deceptive piece made by a leading taxidermist using plaster casts, chicken wings, and swan, goose, and ostrich feathers.
This book looks at 100 items that have profoundly shaped how people watched, studied and engaged with the avian world. Each item contains around 500 words on a double-page spread and include an illustration of the object in question. The book includes the objects listed below as well as many more.The range of items is international and cross-cultural. Subjects include:
An Egyptian 'field guide' [early tomb decorations of birds, identifiable as species] Ornithologiae libri tres: the first British bird guide [a 1676 publication that attempted to itemise all British birds known at the time] The Dodo specimen held at the…
I write North Noir, detective fiction set in the Northeastern USA and Canada. I like mystery/detective stories told with descriptive flair, with clever twists and unforgettable protagonists. Why would you want to read my recommendations? I’ve read hundreds of mystery/detective novels, in all subgenres, from cozy to noir. I’ve been a book review editor, for all types of books. I don’t go for bent cops or over-the-top bloodbaths. If you like character-driven mystery/detective novels, try these five.
A Siege of Bitterns features an unusual protagonist: a reluctant detective. DI Domenic Jejeune is a Canadian transplanted to the UK, to premier birding country. Jejeune likes bird watching as much, if not more, than solving murders. He occasionally comes across as a tortured eccentric. One wonders how he can solve crimes. But he does. His odd individualism is reminiscent of famous fictional detectives like Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot. A Siege of Bitterns features a tangled bird’s nest of false starts and red herrings. Burrows doesn’t shy away from descriptive prose and yet the novel doesn’t lose momentum. It stays focused on the prize: the whodunit.
Inspector Domenic Jejeune's success has made him a poster boy for the U.K. police service. The problem is Jejeune doesn't really want to be a detective at all; he much prefers watching birds. Recently reassigned to the small Norfolk town of Saltmarsh, located in the heart of Britain's premier birding country, Jejeune's two worlds collide when he investigates the grisly murder of a prominent ecological activist. His ambitious police superintendent foresees a blaze of welcome publicity, but she begins to have her doubts when Jejeune's most promising theory involves a feud over birdwatching lists. A second murder only complicates matters.…
I’ve always enjoyed both gardening and children. As a former Virginia Master Gardener and Homeschool mom, and a current Lancaster National Wildlife Federation Habitat Steward, I now find myself encouraging others to look at gardening in a new light – not only as a way to decorate their yards, but also as a means to provide habitat for our diminishing wildlife population. I try to show how you can have both beauty and function at the same time and how much fun it is to engage children in this essential activity. I love books that show what a difference one person – even a young child – can make in the world.
Owen’s garden is like my own! Both our yards are graced with big, old, native trees and we’ve planted additional species of native trees, shrubs, and flowers in the hopes of attracting our avian friends. Like Owen, my hope is that these plants will provide for the birds we love to watch, as well as draw the insects that make healthy meals for them. While I’ve never seen a cerulean blue warbler, I love watching other various birds that visit our garden, especially the great horned owls!
In early April, as Owen and his sister search the hickories, oaks, and dogwoods for returning birds, a huge group of birds leaves the misty mountain slopes of the Yucatan peninsula for the 600-mile flight across the Gulf of Mexico to their summer nesting grounds. One of them is a Cerulean warbler. He will lose more than half his body weight even if the journey goes well. Aloft over the vast ocean, the birds encourage each other with squeaky chirps that say, "We are still alive. We can do this."
Owen's family watches televised reports of a great storm over…
I may not be an expert ornithologist, but I am an avid “birdologist” to borrow a term from Sy Montgomery—one who is awed and fascinated by all things bird. Bird-watching is meditative—it helps me to be present and to feel joyful. I love reading, learning, and writing about birds too! I am the author of these bird books: Hawk Rising, illustrated by Brian Floca, Whoo-Ku Haiku, illustrated by Jonathan Voss, and the forthcoming You and the Bowerbird, illustrated by Maris Wicks. I love writing about the natural world and its inhabitants as well as dogs—another love of mine!
Both Jennifer Ward and Diana Sudyka are two of my favorite kid lit creators, and this brilliant collaboration begs to be read aloud. Ward’s lyrical text sings as an introductory guide for the littlest bird watchers, showing them where to look for birds: up to see them fly and roost—but not just up—down on the ground where birds nest, straight ahead where they blend with bark, on and under the water. And if you put out a birdfeeder, all you need is a window-view. But what’s the best way to find a bird? To listen—birdsong is all around us! Sudyka’s gorgeously intricate art paints the avian details of all the found birds. Don’t miss the back matter for bird-watching tips.
A joyful and informative guide to birdwatching for budding young birders from an award-winning author-illustrator duo.
How do you find a bird? There are so many ways! Begin by watching. And listening. And staying quiet, so quiet you can hear your own heartbeat. Soon you’ll see that there are birds everywhere—up in the sky, down on the ground, sometimes even right in front of you just waiting to be discovered!
Young bird lovers will adore this lushly illustrated introduction to how to spot and observe our feathered friends. It features more than fifty different species, from the giant whooping crane…
As a child I loved reading detective stories, and I still retain strong memories of Tintin and Sherlock Holmes, after which I graduated to Agatha Christie. As an adult my tastes changed and I lost interest in mysteries (with the exception of Edgar Alan Poe). However recently my interests have reversed, partly because I became a grandfather, and partly for the reason that I teach ethics to primary school children, as a volunteer. So it’s possible that Worcester Glendenis is a re-incarnation of me, but as the 12-year-old I wish I had been (as far as my memory can be relied upon to go back 60 years): more emotionally mature and more extrovert.
This book mixes seaside with intrigue, pools with pearls, parents with puzzles, as the two main characters bring their separate, and often conflicting, skills to the table in order to solve a mystery. The chapters are short and punchy with good cliffhangers at the end.
A dazzling, whip-smart mystery series about two very different girls and a whole heap of danger ...
Hannah Plum loves fashion, fun, and junk food. Patti Woo is obsessed with detective novels, lives in leggings, and is definitely not Hannah's friend. But the two girls are stuck at the beachside Heartbreak Hotel together while Hannah's dad and Patti's mum are out birdwatching and - yuck! - falling in love.
When a hotel guest's beautiful pink wedding dress is stolen, Hannah is determined to get to the bottom of it. With a reluctant Patti in tow, the two girls are launched…
I never had a particular interest in birds until I heard about David Wingate and the cahow; I’m just a reporter who was smitten by a compelling story. I often write about science and the environment, as well as travel and other topics, for publications including the Boston Globe, Archaeology, and Harvard Medicine, and while working on Rare Birds I got hooked on these extraordinary creatures and the iconoclastic obsessives who have become their stewards in the Anthropocene era. You don’t have to care about birds to love their stories — but in the end, you will.
If you saw the disappointing-at-best 2011 film based very loosely on this book, don’t let it color your opinion; if you haven’t seen it, buy the book instead. It follows three birders as they traverse North America during 1998’s “big year,” an informal, self-reported 365-day competition in which bird-spotting junkies chase down as many species as they can. It’s an engrossing peek into a fascinating, quirky subculture that will sweep you along on an irresistible armchair roadtrip-with-a-purpose.
Each year, hundreds of people set out across North America determined to set a new record in a spectacularly competitive event. Is it tennis? Golf? Racing? Poker perhaps? No, it's bird-watching, and a contest known as the Big Year - a grand, gruelling, expensive (and occasionally vicious) 365-day marathon to identify the most species. THE BIG YEAR is the rollicking chronicle of the 275,000-mile odyssey of three unlikely adventurers who take their bird-watching so seriously it nearly kills them. From Texas in pursuit of the Rufus-capped Warbler to British Columbia in search of Xantus' Hummingbird, these obsessive enthusiasts brave roasting…
