Every year this fact-packed compendium-cum-diary gets better. There’s something for everyone stuffed into its 336 pages whether you prefer watching garden birds from the kitchen window or charging around the country trying to tick off 500 species in a year to earn a Twitcher’s badge.

Among the most important features in the 31st edition are a daily diary to list species seen on each date plus a British bird list log chart for monthly records. Dragonflies and butterflies get similar treatment. Other useful information includes tide tables, an events diary, directories to book publishers, lecturers, artists and trade outlets of interest to birdwatchers. An updated section lists the best birding websites. Special features include the latest ornithological discoveries while a directory features county, international and international birding groups. Nominations for The Top 10 Best Bird Books of the Year will create plenty of discussion.

Editor Dave Cromack, responsible for checking a multitude of facts, supplies a thoughtful preface on possible consequences of government funding cuts for England’s 224 designated nature reserves. He asks whether we’d be prepared to tolerate sponsored reserves. How about a Costa Coffee Sevenoaks Wildlife reserve where you drive through a coffee shop to reach the wildlife? RSPB Protected Areas Campaigner Andre Farrar has written an article painting a picture of reserve expansion through enlightenment of neighbouring farmers and landowners. These reserves are havens for all wildlife with 13,300 species on RSPB sites which cover more than 140,000 ha or 0.6% of the UK land surface. More could be achieved with landowners’ co-operation, suggests Mr Farrar.

The ornithological news section records that Dungeness played host in 2010 to the UK’s first breeding pair of purple herons. What surprises does 2011 have in store? Even this book can’t tell us that!

ERIC BROWN

Luckily a practical solution is available from those clever people at Dorling Kindersley who have published a small, portable guide which includes all the above – and more! Wildlife of Britain packs the best of our wildlife between two covers with subject matter gleaned from eight separate Pocket Nature guides. Stuffed onto 600 fact-filled pages are profiles and pictures of over 1,000 British plants, fungi, insects and animals.

I struggled to find anything unsatisfactory but if I was being really picky I’d complain about the tiny print size which could be difficult to read on field trips in less than perfect light. But editor Miezan van Zyl has done a brilliant job squeezing so much into a single volume that remains truly portable. Under the headings: trees, wild flowers and plants, fungi and lichen, mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, fish and invertebrates, the best of British nature can be packed in a pocket or a glovebox.

Concise textual description accompanies a photograph of each species. Arrows indicate important ID features, there are (very small) habitat pictures and distribution maps, and in mammals the tracks and droppings are illustrated too. Information panels list important details.

A small book of huge value.

Eric Brown

Dungeness might have been designed for conspiracy theorists who insist The Eagle never really landed at Tranquility Base but was instead filmed on a US desert set just like this.

Yet the lunar landscape has two power stations, two lighthouses and a railway station, a bird observatory, a fishing industry and a thriving community of writers and artists based in an assortment of huts. TV producers love it and "Dunge" has appeared in many programmes from documentaries to whodunits.

Dungeness, on the edge of Romney Marshes, is also among Britain’s prime wildlife sites. As one of the world’s largest shingle landscapes it is classified a desert by Natural England and its flora and fauna make it a magnet for botanists and birdwatchers.It is among the venues given star treatment in this coffee-table book of top British wildlife sites which highlights a different spot each month. Dungeness issaid to be home for over 60 bird species and 600 plant types. Specialities like medicinal leech, great crested newt, wild carrot, viper’s bugloss, the Nottingham catchfly and sea kale are pictured while the brown carder bee and Sussex emerald moth can also be found. However, text is scanty and little space devoted to unusual migrant birds who first make landfall on the Dungeness promontory.

Small maps are next to useless but textual directions to hotspots are fairly exhaustive and there are telephone numbers listed where extra information can be obtained. A more comprehensive list of species to be found at each site would have been useful but if, for example, you are seeking a red squirrel hotspot the book comes up trumps with six different venues.

Other Kent sites chosen as main features include Elmley Marshes for December, Wye Downs (June) and Northward Hill (March). Each double page spread includes details of other prime wildlife sites nearby. Magnificent photgraphs are the highlight of a heavyweight tome unlikely to be taken into the field by wildlife enthusiasts but which could prove a handy reference tool for birdwatchers in conjunction with a "Where to watch..." guide.

Eric Brown

Compare this book with A&C Black’s Nature Guide Birds of Britain and Europe. The Black’s Guide is compact and portable and a reasonable price but The RSPB Guide outscores it on these points.

The Black’s Guide is thicker at 256 pages to 224 and has more species at 360 to 320. But RSPB Pocket Birds is a pound cheaper and considerably lighter to carry.

In the quest for maximum portability in the field, Kent regulars like red-crested pochard and yellow-browed warbler are omitted yet there are plenty of overseas specialities to make the book an essential item on European trips. Undoubtedly one of the best value, pound for pound beginners' guides.

Eric Brown

Kingfishers are among our most colourful birds and a sighting of this "blue streak rocket" always brings excitement to a riverside walk. It’s likely to be a brief glimpse of bright blue and orange as the bird hurtles past perhaps giving a shrill warning call.

I always thought kingfishers ate fish exclusively but the author of this book reveals they sometimes try a different menu. Apparently, kingfishers have been noted feeding on frogs and molluscs. In summer butterflies are taken on the wing.

Author Dominic Couzens reveals stacks of tantalising titbits like this in a 336-page voyage of discovery through the avian world. He lifts the feathers and gets under the skin of birds to disclose their intimate secrets. Kingfishers’ nest chambers, sited in riverbanks, have an opening wide enough for only one bird but there are often six youngsters so how do they feed?

Mr Couzens has the answer. When a parent approaches, the chick nearest the entrance hole receives the fish. Then it shuffles into the gloom to its right, pushing its siblings round in a circle so the next in line is nearest the entrance ready for the next feed; a sort of kingfisher carousel.

Starlings, reveals Mr Couzens, not only mimic telephone ringtones, crying babies and doorbells, they also ape other birds’ behaviour. Just like the cuckoo, the garrulous, black and white spotted lawn scourer lays eggs in other birds’ nests to save energy raising lots of young. To avoid the "host" starling becoming suspicious, the invader will eat or remove one of the original eggs to even up the numbers.

Birds is not a field guide but a heavyweight volume crammed with fascinating facts and magnificent photographs assembled by picture editor Dave Cottridge.

ERIC BROWN

The Birdwatcher’s Yearbook is much more than just a diary – it’s an indispensible compendium crammed full of useful information.

BIRD IDENTIFICATION AND FIELDCRAFT
By Mark Ward
Publisher: New Holland in association with The Wildlife Trusts

A sumptuous publication eight years in the making will delight everyone with an interest in birds from the nervous beginner to the most committed twitcher. It is neither an identification guide nor a behavioural study although both aspects are covered.

Much of this huge 518-page tome is devoted to anecdotes on some 350 species supplied by members of the public responding to an appeal from the authors. Facts, myths, history and folklore on each bird are presented in a highly readable, encyclopaedia-style fashion.

Every possible bird-related topic is included: migration, bird art, birdsong, birds in music, rare facts, bird literature among them,

all extensively illustrated by world renowned bird photographer Chris Gomersall. It describes the interaction of birds and humans, concentrating on cultural links and social history.

For example, in the species biographies under Dartford Warbler we learn this bird was actually discovered and shot on Bexley Heath and subsequently named by one John Latham in 1773. Which begs the question why wasn’t it called the Bexleyheath Warbler? The old country name was "furze wren" and it was once frequent on Wimbledon Common, Blackheath and at Wormwood Scrubs.

Leading conservationists raised question marks over its future in the 1970s but it has now flourished to around 2,000 pairs.

For anoraks there are plenty of lists to provide or answer quiz questions galore. Pubs with bird names, biographies of leading ornithologists and even bird names in Welsh!

If you buy only one bird book as a Christmas or birthday present this must be it. You can pick it up and dip into it anytime, anywhere.

One tip though. The cover price is £35 but you can obtain Birds Britannica at least £10 cheaper by shopping around High Street bookshops. Go and get it.

Eric Brown

Roy is a former RSPB Local Group Leader and obviously also a brave author unafraid to confront burning issues affecting garden birds.

In a chapter on Predators and Pests in the garden Roy singles out the domestic cat as their most significant predator. Risking the wrath of the cat protection lobby, his bald statistics lay much of the blame for bird casualties firmly at the door (or should that be flap) of pet cats.

There are over seven million domestic cats in the UK, he says, and up to one in three of them lives in a wild or feral state. These assassins kill between 30 and 75 million birds every year, claims Mr Beddard.

He suggests various ways of reducing the problem. Cats should be neutered to reduce the feral population, the chief culprits of this huge and indiscriminate slaughter. Cats should always be well fed and kept in at early morning and dusk when birds feed. A bell should be placed on a collar around the cat’s neck so birds can hear an approach.

Planting prickly hedges and shrubs around the borders of your garden will help keep cats out – or in. Of course owning a cat – or a dog – of your own will also be a powerful deterrent.

This is just one aspect of garden birdwatching uppermost in the mind of anyone who has seen the tail of a luckless bird vanishing into a cat’s mouth. But others are considered thoroughly in a publication which above all shows how gardening and birdwatching can be combined without conflict.

Eric Brown

Whether you simply throw breadcrumbs on the lawn or spend a small fortune on seeds and peanuts this book will inform you how to attract garden birds by improving your feeding methods.

It might disillusion you, too. If you have been forking out for mixed seeds Mr Burton recommends you stop right now.

He says research has shown this is one of the most wasteful methods of feeding. Apparently birds on feeders extract and discard the seeds they don’t like to get at their favourites. Instead he recommends several different feeders, each filled with a single type of seed or grain to avoid this waste.

But which foods to concentrate on?

This is one of the very few books available with a detailed analysis of bird foods. Sunflower seeds, for example, are nutritious. The kernels are 50% fat, 19% carbohydrate, 23% protein and 3% sugars. Sunflower seeds will be taken by tits, woodpeckers, nuthatches and finches who can deal with them in their shells, while robins and dunnocks can eat the hearts. The flowers are very attractive to insects.

Of course there is no better way to feed birds than planting the trees, shrubs and flowers that provide natural food. A whole chapter is devoted to this with ideas for planting a wildlife garden.

The controversial question of whether to feed in the breeding season is answered along with how best to tackle less welcome garden visitors like cats, rats, squirrels and magpies.

There is also advice on which feeders to use, provision of water and storage and hygiene.

This is an invaluable guide lavishly illustrated by the colour photographs of Steve Young.

Eric Brown

Television presenter Nick takes his readers on a colourful tour of British wildlife through the seasons.

While out birdwatching we have all wondered which animal left those teeth marks in hazelnuts or if it was a badger responsible for the footprints we can see.

This book provides the answers….and much more.

Birds are, of course, well catered for but there are stunning insights on other wildlife, too: how to investigate rock pools, advice on optical equipment, where to see Britain’s best daffodil displays in March, how to capture minnows and the use of a "batterpult" to attract bats are among thousands of wildlife tips included in this gripping book.

If you ever wondered how Victorians attracted the Purple Emperor butterfly down from woodland rafters to grace their collections the answer’s here. (Would you believe they used a putrefying rabbit, urine or dog and fox faeces? Butterfly collecting must have been a messy business in those days!)

There’s advice on how to attract Oak Bush Crickets, tawny owls and robins and you can learn how to collect wildlife footprints.

Badgers are among my favourite mammals so I lapped up the section on how to see these secretive creatures.

The author’s practical advice includes where and how to watch different wildlife each month, from goldfinches to fungi, from newts to moths, from dragonfly nymphs to crabs, from red deer to water voles.

Many of these animals are vital to birds. Nick Baker’s thoughtful and practical ideas will allow us all to understand and appreciate them – perhaps to see them, too.

Eric Brown

Two pieces of advice are vital for anyone who studies birds from their kitchen window. First, keep a pair of binoculars handy so you are ready to take a closer look at any interesting birds that turn up. Second, buy and digest a book like the one Dominic Cozens has put together to get much more from your garden birdwatching.

There are the obligatory chapters on bird identification and feeding but the book is written from a birdwatcher’s point of view rather than for a person dedicated to wild bird husbandry. It will help the reader understand garden birds and why they do what they do.

There are chapters devoted to the birds you might see, their characteristics and behaviour, a month-by-month calendar of garden bird activity, the requirements of garden birds and how you can satisfy them and a final thought on controversial garden issues like cats and magpies.

Some of the birds included in the "biographies" section seem slightly weird selections as potential garden species.

Brambling, willow tit, tree sparrow and reed bunting would be fabulous sightings but the author admits in his introduction to being generous in his choice of likely garden visitors. And we all know from experience that anything can turn up anywhere!

The book is packed with Steve Young’s top quality colour photographs and includes information panels on what to look and listen for.

You can get children involved, too. The author even suggests a game where points can be awarded for different flight aspects of the collared dove and woodpigeon.

An interesting and informative read destined for many a conservatory table.

Eric Brown