discover the joys of watching beautiful birds

Nikky Corker

Bird watching is a popular pastime in England, and there are many bird-watching sites nationwide, or can simply watch birds from the garden or park.

Don’t play birdsong to attract birds (can attract predators). Learn how to create safe havens for birds and how to stop birds flying into windows.

Be a Birder is a book on discovering the joy of bird watching and how to get started, by popular TV ornithologist Hamza Yassin. This beautifully illustrated guide features 50 of his favourite birds, to learn to understand their habitat, behavour and movements. Starting with the goldfinch in your garden, he then covers tawny owls in woodlands, kingfishers in rivers, Arctic terns, peregrine falcons and more.

I absolutely love birds. They make me tick. It’s no exaggeration to say that I wake up and go to sleep, thinking about birds. All of my conversations get redirected back to birds somehow. When someone asks me what it is I love about birds, my first answer is that they can fly. I still find myself staring at their wings and thinking ‘How can you do that?’

Hamza Yassin is a Scottish wildlife cameraman and skilled ornithologist. Born in Sudan, he moved to Scotland while young and took a degree on Zoology with Conservation and a Masters in Biological Photography and Imaging. He has appeared on many wildlife TV shows (and fans may also recognise him as the winner on Strictly Come Dancing).

How to Look at a Bird is a beautifully illustrated guide for beginner birdwatchers by acclaimed naturalist and artist Clare Walker Leslie. Using her signature nature journal illustrations, she shows readers the key clues to look for – from the shape of the beak or talons to distinctive feather colours, flight patterns and behaviour traits. Find simple prompts to encourage readers to ask how the bird is moving or eating and what season is it? Clare Walker Leslie is a wildlife artist, writer and educator who has been teaching people how to observe and draw nature for over 30 years. She lives in Massachusetts and Vermont, USA.

The Slow Birding Journal is a beautifully designed field diary, for anyone who loves to watch birds. Unlike most that are merely ‘lists of birds’, this book advocates ‘slow birding’ that is focused on the joys of watching birds where you are and at your own pace, rather than travelling far and wide to ‘tick birds you spot’ off your list. Filled with detailed sections for daily use, the journal includes:

Space to record dates, locations and species of sightings
Targeted prompts & questions to incorporate into your birding
Advice and guidance on what to look for and pay attention to
Illustrations of many birds, plus blank pages for your own drawings

The best birding is where you are right now: in your backyard, your local parks, or on your favourite day hikes. This journal will lead you to a deeper understanding of the birds you see each day. Joan Strassman is an evolutionary biologist who has watched birds (slowly) all her life. An award-winning teach of animal behaviour in Houston and St Louis, she has written 200 scientific articles on ecology.

how well do you know England’s native birds?

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Here’s a quick list of England’s native birds. See the birds tag for more information on how to help garden birds, wildfowl, urban birds and more.