What is a bird?: evolution and diversity; anatomy; senses; flight; migration; feeding; courtship; nesting; rearing. Getting started: observing with binoculars; scopes and tripods; photography; notes and sketches; bringing birds to you; creating bird habitats. In the field: rocky, sandy and shingle shores; open seas and cliffs; estuaries, mudflats and salt-marshes; rivers and marshes; lakes, reservoirs and gravel pits; heath and moorland; Mediterranean scrub; farmland; mountains; woodlands; parks and gardens. How to identify: size and shape; identification in flight; colour and markings; bird behaviour; vocal communication; habitat; range and abundance; time of year. Species by species: families and species; divers and grebes; petrels, shearwaters, gannets and cormorants; herons; storks, flamingos and spoonbills; wildfowl; birds of prey; gamebirds; cranes, rails and crakes; waders; skuas, gulls, terns and auks; pigeons and doves; owls and nightjars; kingfishers, swifts and cuckoos; woodpeckers; larks; martins and swallows; pipits and wagtails; wrens, dippers, waxwings and accentors; chats and thrushes; warblers; flycatchers; tits, nuthatches and treecreepers; shrikes; crows and orioles; starlings; sparrows; finches; buntings. Where to watch: England; Scotland; Wales; Ireland and Northern Ireland; Denmark; Sweden; Norway; Finland; Iceland; France; Germany; Belgium; the Netherlands; Poland; Hungary; Romania; Slovenia, Croatia and Yugoslavia; Switzerland; Austria; Spain and Portugal; Italy; Greece; Turkey.
