RSPB Handbook of British Birds: Fifth edition

The bestselling RSPB Handbook of British Birds has been completely revised and updated for its fifth edition. To maintain its position as the most comprehensive accessible field guide to British birds, the new edition includes new artwork, additional rarities, extra comparison spreads and a completely updated taxonomic order.

This easy-to-use guide offers an ‘avian biography’ for all of the bird species likely to be encountered in Britain or Ireland including many details of breeding, migration and longevity not found in other mass-market bird guides. It covers all aspects of field identification, features illustrations showing all common plumage forms, and also describes each bird’s behaviour, breeding biology, population, status and longevity, as well as other interesting facts.

For this edition, the authors have fully revised the species text using the latest available research and knowledge on identification, distributions, ecology and conservation. The conservation text gives the current status for every bird and now also provides a summary of the current threats each species faces with details of what conservationists are doing to help. The detailed maps included for every featured species have also been updated for this edition to reflect their current UK distribution. In short, this is a complete, single source of essential information to the UK’s most familiar birds.