barry robson
Well-known member
'Collins' is definitely number one but too heavy to lug around all day (buy from Amazon) so I use 'The New Birdwatcher's Pocket Guide to Britain and Europe' by P Hyman and R Hume (plastic cover, £3.99 from garden centres/National Trust) which is much handier and can fit into my back pocket. It's been well-used and is now pretty manky so I need to get a new one. It's one shortcoming is the lack of size measurements, but for £3.99 I'm nit-picking. I've just bought the massive 550 pp version of it - 'BIRD The ultimate illustrated guide to the birds of Britain and Europe' (retail £25.00) for £10 in a bookshop in York. I also use the 2-volume set of Birds of the Western Palearctic in times of trouble, but I find it can be a bit short on plumage illustrations.
