GUIDE TO BIRD WATCHING
Seeing birds at close range can give you hours of enjoyment. Learn how to identify them, and how to attract them to your garden.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
Identification of most birds becomes easier with experience: most of us can quickly identify a Robin or a House Sparrow. Identifying a bird is usually a process based on a range of information, including its size, colour, and shape.
SIZE
Judging size can be difficult but it is a useful clue to identification. If you see an unfamiliar bird try to estimate its size against a more familiar one. Waders range from small (Dunlin) to middle-sized (Redshank), large (Bar-tailed Godwit), or very large (Curlew). Other birds, such as warblers, may be more subtle, ranging from a tiny 11 cm to a relatively large 15 cm.
DUNLIN
and the more you look, the more you will want to learn about the differences there are between them so that you can start to identify individual species. This guide features 150 birds that can be seen in Britain and Ireland. They are arranged by bird type.
Each entry has a photograph, which is usually of the adult male bird unless stated otherwise. Some species have females that look significantly different, so some of those have been included as well. Underneath each photo is the common name of the bird as known in the UK and a data set that tells you the following information: the length of the bird from tip of tail to tip of bill
the length of the outstretched wings from wingtip to wingtip
the size of the group the bird is usually found in If you want to find out more detailed information about each bird, turn to the back page of this pullout to see some bird books from DK.
Picture credits: Dorling Kindersley: David Cotteridge;
R H de Heer; Hanne and Jens Eriksen; Bob Glover;
Chris Gomersall; Mark Hamblin; Mike Lane; Tim Loseby; George Mccarthy; Tomi Muukkonen; National Birds of Prey Centre, Gloucestershire; Carlos Sanchez; Roger Tidman; David Tipling; Roger Wilmshurst; Steve Young;
123RF: argenlant; Dreamstime.com: Vasiliy Vishnevskiy For more information see www.dkimages.com
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