Contents

INTRODUCTION

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

SHORT CUTS TO IDENTIFICATION

GLOSSARY

TOPOGRAPHICAL TIPS

MOULT AND AGEING

SPECIES

WILDFOWL

Whooper and Bewick’s Swans*

Grey geese*

Snow and Ross’s Geese

Cackling and Canada Geese

Brent Geese

Mandarin and Wood Ducks

Eurasian and American Wigeons

Large dabbling ducks in late summer and autumn: Mallard, Gadwall, Pintail and Shoveler

Small dabbling ducks: Common, Green-winged, Cinnamon and Blue-winged Teals, and Garganey

Aythya ducks: Greater and Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Duck, Ferruginous Duck and hybrids*

Eiders: females, immatures and eclipse males

Scoters*

Goosander and Red-breasted Merganser

DIVERS

SEABIRDS

Cory’s and Great Shearwaters

Manx, Balearic and Sooty Shearwaters

Storm, Leach’s and Wilson’s Petrels

GREBES

Slavonian, Black-necked and Red-necked Grebes

HERONS

Bittern and Night Heron

Purple Heron

Egrets

CORMORANT AND SHAG

BIRDS OF PREY

Red and Black Kites

Hen, Montagu’s, Pallid and Northern Harriers

Goshawk and Sparrowhawk

Common, Rough-legged and Honey Buzzards

Golden and White-tailed Eagles

Falcons: Peregrine, Merlin, Hobby and Red-footed Falcon

WADERS

Ringed, Little Ringed and Kentish Plovers*

Large plovers: Grey, European Golden, American Golden and Pacific Golden Plovers, and Dotterel

Little and Temminck’s Stints and Sanderling

The rare stints: Semipalmated, Western and Least Sandpipers, and Red-necked and Long-toed Stints

White-rumped and Baird’s Sandpipers

Dunlin, Curlew Sandpiper, Broad-billed Sandpiper and Knot

Ruff, Buff-breasted and Pectoral Sandpipers

Common, Jack and Great Snipes

Godwits

Curlew and Whimbrel

Common and Spotted Sandpipers*

Green and Wood Sandpipers*

Common and Spotted Redshanks, Greenshank and Marsh Sandpiper

Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs

Phalaropes

SKUAS, GULLS AND TERNS

Arctic, Pomarine and Long-tailed Skuas

Immature Kittiwake and Little and Sabine’s Gulls

Mediterranean Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Herring, Lesser Black-backed and Great Black-backed Gulls

Yellow-legged and Caspian Gulls

Glaucous and Iceland Gulls

Sandwich and Gull-billed Terns

Marsh terns: Black, White-winged Black, Whiskered and American Black Terns

Common, Arctic and Roseate Terns*

AUKS

PIGEONS AND DOVES

OWLS

Long-eared and Short-eared Owls

Common, Alpine and Pallid Swifts

SHRIKES

Red-backed, Daurian, Turkestan, Brown, Woodchat and Masked Shrikes

Great Grey, Lesser Grey and Steppe Grey Shrikes

CROWS

Crows: Carrion Crow, Rook, Raven, Jackdaw and Chough

MARSH AND WILLOW TITS

LARKS AND SWALLOWS

Skylark, Woodlark and Short-toed Lark

Red-rumped Swallow

WARBLERS

Cetti’s Warbler

Locustella warblers: Grasshopper, Savi’s and River Warblers

Greenish and Arctic Warblers

Dusky and Radde’s Warblers

Yellow-browed, Hume’s and Pallas’s Warblers

Goldcrest and Firecrest

Wood Warbler and Western and Eastern Bonelli’s Warblers

Willow Warbler and the chiffchaffs

Aquatic Warbler*

Unstreaked Acrocephalus warblers

Iduna warblers: Eastern, Booted, Sykes’s and Olivaceous Warblers

Hippolais warblers: Melodious and Icterine Warblers

Sylvia warblers: Common and Lesser Whitethroats and Subalpine, Moltoni’s, Garden and Barred Warblers

THRUSHES AND CHATS

Rose-coloured Starling

Ring Ouzel and Blackbird

Song and Mistle Thrushes

Common and Thrush Nightingales

Common and Black Redstarts

European and Eastern Stonechats and Whinchat

SPARROWS

House and Tree Sparrows

WAGTAILS AND PIPITS

Grey, Yellow, Eastern Yellow and Citrine Wagtails

Pied and White Wagtails

Richard’s, Tawny and Blyth’s Pipits

Small pipits: Meadow, Tree, Red-throated, Olive-backed and Pechora Pipits

Rock, Water and Buff-bellied Pipits

FINCHES AND BUNTINGS

Green finches: Greenfinch, Siskin and Serin

Brown finches: Linnet, Twite and Common Rosefinch

Lesser, Mealy and Arctic Redpolls

Common, Parrot, Scottish and Two-barred Crossbills

Cirl Bunting and Yellowhammer

Reed, Little, Rustic and Lapland Buntings

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

SPECIFIC BIBLIOGRAPHY

* illustrations entirely or mainly by Laurel Tucker; the remainder are by Alan Harris