Collins Bird Guide: The Most Complete Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe

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Collins Bird Guide updated, but did anyone know?". www.rarebirdalert.co.uk . Retrieved 2 February 2018. It is hard to think of many examples where genuinely distinctive regional forms of any of the species covered are not now depicted. One that springs to mind is the Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch Fringilla polatzekibut that, including its distinctive voice, is at least now described in the text (with Gran Canaria and Tenerife Blue Chaffinch Fringilla teydea treated as a single species). I barely have any niggles with the app, but one is that the 'search by attributes' bar in the top right of the screen is occasionally unresponsive for me. The positioning of the text in the comparison views can occasionally be too far from or too close to the plates. However, the beauty of apps is that they can be continuously updated, meaning any niggles are often ironed out in future updates. With expanded text and additional colour illustrations, the third edition of the hugely successful Collins Bird Guide is a must for every birdwatcher.

Collins Bird Guide, second edition". HarperCollins. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011 . Retrieved 23 November 2009.Relative abundance maps are shown for every species. The darker shading shows where a species is most abundant and the lighter shades where it is less so, for both winter and summer. These are based on the very latest information contained within the BTO’s Bird Atlas 2007–11. In addition, a calendar wheel shows the months when species are most frequently seen. Svensson, Lars; Grant, Peter; Mullarney, Killian; Zetterstrom, Dan (1999). Fugle i felten: Feltbestemmelse af fugle i Europa og Middelhavsområdet. L&R Fakta. ISBN 87-614-0107-2. The book provides all the information needed to identify any species at any time of the year, covering size, habitat, range, identification and voice. Accompanying every species entry is a distribution map and illustrations showing the species in all the major plumages (male, female, immature, in flight, at rest, feeding: whatever is important). The app has been designed to give intuitive navigation on Android, and contains the same great features as the iOS app including search, filter, and compare. The new illustrations are, as you'd expect given the calibre of the authors, superb. From the perspective of the British birder, updates to some of the terns, swifts, Old World flycatchers and finches are among the most relevant. Among my favourites were the updated harriers and redstarts, while the distinguishing of Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll is also welcome.

But the advantages of apps go well beyond savings on weight. In fact, the benefits of apps and eBooks are so strong that I'm now reluctant to buy books unless they are available in digital format. Apps can be searched for particular species or search terms and song/calls can be played – both of which are impossible in physical books. The Collins Bird Guide app offers a 'search by attributes' feature that allows searching for birds, using for example colouration or size, and should appeal to less experienced birders. Furthermore, it has a comparison feature, which allows similar species from various parts of the book to be compared side by side, which is very useful and again impossible in the physical version of the book. Given the resounding success of the Collins Bird Guide over the past 15 years and its undisputed position as the region's top field guide, the potential for a quality app version was always great. However, putting theory into practice is no mean feat and the Touch Press team is to be applauded for forging an avant-garde production that is crisply designed and extremely well presented, and also boasts a number of thoughtful, innovative and above all instructive features that the book version could never offer. And, to boot, it weighs nothing – a sure-fire bonus when out on an exhausting day in the field! In a new collaboration, the BTO have paired up with the respected publishing house Collins to bring you the most authoritative and up-to-date information in this new field guide to the common birds of Britain and Ireland. With its greater pagination and added illustrations, the new version is bigger and better than ever. But what exactly has changed, and has it made sufficient strides during the 12-year wait for an update to be published?often called ‘small thrushes’), tits and a few finches and buntings are some of these. More than 50 plates are either new or have been repainted, completely or partly. Apart from this, a few new vignettes have been added. The section with vagrants has been expanded to accommodate more images and longer texts for several species. The entire text and all maps have of course also been revised.