Providing a comprehensive field-guide to the 255 birds regularly seen in Britain and Ireland, this book devotes a full page to each bird, and a colour code allows readers to locate the different bird groups quickly and easily as they flick through the book. The detailed illustrations were painted by an artist who is himself a keen birdwatcher, and show each species in its major plumages and most typical field positions. Wherever possible, similar birds appear on facing pages and in similar postures, to facilitate comparison. The labels around the artwork are based on the notes that most birdwatchers make in their own field notebooks, and a concise text summmarizes the most important points about each bird's appearance and behaviour, and describes how to distinguish it from similar species. General birdwatching information is provided in the introduction. The author has written over 20 books on birds, as well as scripts for television series such as "Survival" and "The World About Us".