Foreword by Chris Packham This beautiful book accompanies the photographic competition celebrating some of the best bird photography of the year. The Bird Photographer of the Year competition celebrates the artistry of bird photography, & this large-format book is lavishly illustrated to reflect this. A celebration of avian beauty & diversity, it is a tribute to both the dedication & passion of the photographers as well as a reflection of the quality of today`s modern digital imaging systems. The book

Includes:: the winning & short-listed images from the competition, now in its third year, showcasing some of the finest bird photography, with a foreword by BTO President & head judge, Chris Packham. A proportion of the profits from the book goes directly to the BTO to support their conservation work. The advent of digital technology has revolutionised photography in recent years, & the book brings to life some of the most stunning bird photography currently on offer. It features a vast variety of photographs by hardened pros, keen amateurs & hobbyists alike, reflecting the huge diversity of bird enthusiasts & nature lovers which is so important in ensuring their conservation & survival.

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Containing 21 postcards of striking birds from all around the world, colourfully illustrated by Christine Berrie. Spot penguins & puffins, sparrows & blue tits, as well as learning about weird & wonderful exotic birds such as the splendid fairywren through the fascinating facts included on the cards. Send a robin with Christmas tidings, a laughing kookaburra to share a joke or a northern cardinal with songs of springtime. These beautiful birds will take flight with your messages to reach absent friends in all corners of the globe. ...

What is it like to be a swift, flying at over one hundred kilometres an hour? Or a kiwi, plodding flightlessly among the humid undergrowth in the pitch dark of a New Zealand night? & what is going on inside the head of a nightingale as it sings, & how does its brain improvise? Bird Sense addresses questions like these & many more, by describing the senses of birds that enable them to interpret their environment & to interact with each other. Our affinity for birds is often said to be the result of shared senses
- vision & hearing
- but how exactly do their senses compare with our own? & what about a birds` sense of taste, or smell, or touch or the ability to detect the earth`s magnetic field? Or the extraordinary ability of desert birds to detect rain hundreds of kilometres away
- how do they do it? Bird Sense is based on a conviction that we have consistently underestimated what goes on in a bird`s head. Our understanding of bird behaviour is simultaneously informed & constrained by the way we watch & study them. By drawing attention to the way these frameworks both facilitate & inhibit discovery, it identifies ways we can escape from them to seek new horizons in bird behaviour. There has never been a popular book about the senses of birds. No one has previously looked at how birds interpret the world or the way the behaviour of birds is shaped by their senses. A lifetime spent studying birds has provided Tim Birkhead with a wealth of observation & an understanding of birds & their behaviour that is firmly grounded in science.


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We can hear birdsong anywhere, whether we live in the city or in the country. Without the musical backdrop provided by our feathered friends, our gardens, parks, woods, fields & wetlands would be relatively silent
- & much the poorer for it. Often we hear their calls, but cannot see the birds making them. This easy-to-use package of book & CD offers insight into the secret world of birds. The CD features 96 bird calls of species commonly found in a variety of habitats across Britain & the rest of Europe. Each audio track is numbered to coincide with the guide for quick reference. The book also presents full-colour photographs of the birds & interesting text about their habits, feeding & nesting routines, as well as their calls. Invaluable for birders of all ages & abilities, this CD & book offer an ideal way to increase your knowledge of bird identification & help to understand their behaviour. It is a guide for birdwatchers of all ages & abilities, from expert to beginner. It is ideal for home use or to take on birding trips. It will appeal to travellers, wildlife enthusiasts, students & specialists alike.
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A truly comprehensive multimedia field guide for the avid bird-listener, for quick & easy identification of over 200 birds. This unique Collins Field Guide features two CDs providing audio references for Geoff Sample, s comprehensive list of songs & calls of the common birds of Britain & Northern Europe. With the CDs organised by habitat & the list of birds by species, together they enable the bird watcher to easily match a song or call with the species. Beginning with a scientific overview of the terminology used, the general meanings of bird songs & calls & their various functions as tools for socialising & communicating, the book then takes you through the list of bird species, examining their sounds & their different meanings. With over two hours of digitally recorded sounds & hundreds of species covered, this is an indispensable guide for any dedicated bird fan, leaving you with a far greater understanding of the natural noises that surround us everyday. ...

Extraordinary Victorian ornithological lithographs from the Smithsonian collection decorate this nature lover`s journal. Light prompts invite readers to record impressions & sightings; snippets of birding lore are scattered throughout, this is a journal rife with tips for casual & beginner birding & nature enthusiast. Extensive back-matter section

Includes:: notes about how to hone observation skills; top 20 lists; anatomy of birds, nests & trees; additional resources, & more. This journal should speak to nature lovers & amateur naturalists as much as bird watchers

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It is 1792 & Europe is seized by political turmoil & violence. Lizzie Fawkes has grown up in Radical circles where each step of the French Revolution is followed with eager idealism. But she has recently married John Diner Tredevant, a property developer who is heavily invested in Bristol`s housing boom, & he has everything to lose from social upheaval & the prospect of war. Soon his plans for a magnificent terrace built above the two-hundred-foot drop of the Gorge come under threat. Diner believes that Lizzie`s independent, questioning spirit must be coerced & subdued. She belongs to him: law & custom confirm it, & she must live as he wants. In a tense drama of public & private violence, resistance & terror, Diner`s passion for Lizzie darkens until she finds herself dangerously alone. ...

Lizzie Fawkes has grown up in Radical circles where each step of the French Revolution is followed with eager idealism. But she has recently married John Diner Tredevant, a property developer who is heavily invested in Bristol’s housing boom, & he has everything to lose from social upheaval & the prospect of war. Soon his plans for a magnificent terrace built above the two-hundred-foot drop of the Gorge come under threat. Diner believes that Lizzie’s independent, questioning spirit must be coerced & subdued. She belongs to him: law & custom confirm it, & she must live as he wants. In a tense drama of public & private violence, resistance & terror, Diner’s passion for Lizzie darkens until she finds herself dangerously alone. ...

Identifying confusion species
- those birds that have strong similarities
- can be remarkably difficult. The first Macmillan

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Since 1972 Mark Cocker has been a member of a community of obsessional people, almost all male, who sacrifice most of their spare time, a good deal of money, sometimes their chances of a partner or family, even occasionally their lives, to watch birds. Birders is the story of this community, of its characters, its rules, its equipment & its adventures
- many of which are hilariously funny, Birders is also a work of love
- the story of what birds can do to the human heart.

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