British Birds: A photographic guide to every common species (Collins Complete Guide)

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Birds of Buckton includes an extensive introduction to the area, as well as a systematic list that provides details of all of the species recorded at Buckton in the last five decades.

another one of the top quality bargain books we have come to expect from Princeton's WildGuides series. As Martin Collinson put it in his review of this title, ‘This book makes the case that vagrancy in birds matters. At a time when rewilding and wildlife-friendly land management are rising in the public consciousness, the judges felt that this book offers a nuanced view and does not shy away from its subject's complexities.With material spanning the 19th Century to the present day, our fascinating and diverse collections are open to everyone. This adds an extra layer of information and, owing to its illustration of details such as the segments and joints of the feet, the aerofoil of the wing and the various feather tracts, there is much to learn from this title. There are a great number of pocket-sized guides to the UK’s birds on the market so that any new edition to the throng really needs to stand out. The narrow geographical scope of the book (a clifftop local patch in Yorkshire) enhances rather than detracts from the author's dedication and passion.

Bird books have been a constant presence in my life, from Ladybird Books to field guides via fiction and non-fiction with one thing in common. I take away from it a strong impression of obsession, plus the lesson behind this useful remark: “If you saw a bird … it had already seen you. David Tipling is one of the world's most widely published wildlife photographers and the author or commissioned photographer of many books. Gulls of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East bucks the trend of gull identification guides in excluding birds from North America and East Asia; however, by focusing on just the species recorded in the wider Western Palearctic, the title brings a degree of manageability to what is potentially a very tricky subject.

The cormorant is an unusual bird – the way it stands in a crucifix-like pose, drying its wings – and The Cormorant is an unusual novel. They also felt that the title communicates the importance of vagrancy to a range of ornithological phenomena, from the formation of new migration routes to speciation. The judges valued this title for its birder-orientated approach to habitats, making the topic accessible and engaging even to those among the panel who admitted they had not given it much thought previously!

Hugh Harrop is an award-winning photographer and the owner of the ecotourism business Shetland Wildlife. These carefully curated photographs are the conclusive answer to any who said that photos cannot illustrate identification features. Another release in the highly popular WILDGuides series, this title takes the approach of its predecessor Britain’s Birds but expands its cover across Europe.Professor of English at the University of Sussex (I teach at Manchester Metropolitan University) and author of numerous works of nonfiction, Royle had published his first novel, Quilt, the year before.