Whats your top five bird books (1 Viewer)

After reading the verry good Collins thread i do think there is more information to be gleaned from other publications,and i would be intrested in what others thought would make a good top five books to give an over view of our subject. This my top five books and why.

1 Collins Its the finest guide but could do with being slimmer bigger pics and more pocket sized

2 Identifing birds by behavior by Dominic Couzens. It covers jizz in the field be it pippit song flight or sea ducks in winter and compliments any field guide briliantly. Couzens is quite simply a god.

3 Collins Bird songs and calls by Jeff Sample.This is the one with the 2 cds. Identfing bird song great book for learning the craft.

4 Discovering Birds by Rob Hume. An old RSPB publication. This covers every habitat in europe and what you can expect to see. brill book

5 Birds Britanica by Mark Cocker and Richard Mabey the big boy on the block with fantastic depth on all the british birds its quite simply outstanding. Not cheap it can be found half price or less on amazon.

So there you go. What do you think. What are your faves cos im allways up for learning more and increasing my skills.

DAFI

1 - The Osprey by W Pearson
2 - Birds of Prey by Leslie Brown
3 - The Peregrine by Dick Treleavan
4 - The Greenshank by D N Thompson
5 The Dotterel by D N Thompson

As you can tell, I prefer books by field ornithologists, not compilations

Dafi - I was going to put four out the five you said! I'd replace 4 with Birds of the World by Oliver Austin and Arthur Singer. It's a book from the 60s that I got from a bargain bookshop when I was a kid (about £2.99 I think). It taught me a lot about taxonomy, has beautiful drawings throughout, and still stands up as a reference book even today.

I got Birds Britannica for £12.99 because it has a slight mark on the jacket. Bargain!

My five would be (in no particular order):

1. Collins Field Guide
2. The Sound Approach to Birding (Very useful and readable introduction to the mysteries of sonograms and bird calls)
3. BWP (for in depth information about particular species)
4. The New Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland (I have an atlas fetish)
5. Birds Britannica

I don't know that these would give a good overview, but probably represent the books that I look at most frequently. I could also add the Handbook of the Birds of the World, which is fantastic, takes up a huge amount of space on my bookshelf, but actually doesn't get looked at very often!

Capercaillie71 said:

My five would be (in no particular order):

1. Collins Field Guide
2. The Sound Approach to Birding (Very useful and readable introduction to the mysteries of sonograms and bird calls)
3. BWP (for in depth information about particular species)
4. The New Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland (I have an atlas fetish)
5. Birds Britannica

I don't know that these would give a good overview, but probably represent the books that I look at most frequently. I could also add the Handbook of the Birds of the World, which is fantastic, takes up a huge amount of space on my bookshelf, but actually doesn't get looked at very often!

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Hi Cappercaillie I wouldnt mind a read through The sound approach to birding. that one quite appeals but finding time and getting round to it are two of my vices and i must admit i havent even seen the BWP .one day when that lottery ticket comes in im going to have a big dig around in the BTO and RSPB publications hehe.