Garden Bird Confidential

Dominic writes many interesting and informative books but, unfortunately, this one doesn’t quite hit the mark for a BTO audience. Joining the very swollen ranks of nice books for people that like to watch birds in their gardens it is, however, not quite clear what the purpose of this book actually is. It is more than just a coffee-table book but, whilst it does cover each species in turn, is not an ID guide.

One of the highlights is the ‘confidential’ pieces: numerous nuggets of information about the individual species, many of which are fascinating and could be a very good way of getting people interested in finding out more about the birds around them.

The choice of species is slightly surprising. One chapter covers Treecreeper/Short-toed Treecreeper, for instance, yet makes no distinction between the two species, only tangentially mentioning the latter’s European distribution in a photo credit, without expanding on this or even clarifying which species occurs in the UK. Serin, Golden Oriole and Black Redstart – not exactly garden birds in the UK - also have their own chapters; and others cover species such as Hawfinch and Crested Tit which are only very rarely encountered, let alone in gardens, in this country. Obviously this book is hoping to cover all bases, including the European market and, in so doing, is in danger of causing confusion amongst a target audience where some may struggle to identify all the birds that visit their garden.

Book reviewed by Su Gough