Bird Watching

Bird Watching is Britain’s best-selling birdwatching magazine. Each issue is packed with expert advice on when, where and how to see more birds, from common garden visitors to the most elusive rarities. There are features from some of British birdwatching’s best-known names, superbly illustrated by the work of the world’s best bird photographers, plus comprehensive coverage of all the latest sightings, guides to the best birdwatching sites, ID masterclasses, news and reviews of all the latest gear.

Bird Watching

Welcome

YOUR BIRDING MONTH • AUGUST

FIVE BIRDS TO FIND • August may be peak summer holiday month in England, but it is also early autumn in birding terms, with juvenile passerines and waders heading (in a somewhat leisurely fashion) south to the wintering grounds. Here are some lovely birds to look for this month.

RARITY PREDICTOR

Some distinctive juvenile waders • Here are a few distinctive juvenile wader plumages which can be useful to know in their own right, but also can be essential to know well when looking for rarer birds

Beyond Birdwatching • James Lowen on what to look out for in high summer

Weedon’s World • After an inauspicious and, let’s face it, miserable start, cold and windy June became hot stuff on Mike’s home patch

Help fight threat to Blackbirds • A mosquito-borne disease is thought to be behind a worrying recent decline

NEWS IN BRIEF

Gryompy Old Birden • All our opinions need to be heard, if real change is to happen, writes Bo Beolens

Sign up to #My200BirdYear • We’re still in the middle of what you might call the ‘summer lull’, but that doesn’t mean you can’t add a few more ticks to your list before the frantic rush of autumn migration, writes editor Matt Merritt. It’s time to try something different…

Up on the roof • Thirty-minute birder Amanda Tuke hunts for an iconic, but elusive, London bird

One man’s mission

What’s in a name? • Across the Atlantic, big changes to bird names are afoot, but is it a good thing? Bo Beolens then Stuart Winter offer both sides of the story…

Hold your nose, it’s a HOOPOE! • They might look beautiful, but these exotic visitors to our shores have rather unpleasant nest-defence habits

Expect the unexpected • Scilly might conjure up images of endless rare migrants dropping in, but you just don’t know what you’ll get, writes Ruth Miller

IDChallenge • This month’s challenge is all about the identification of birds in close-up

Answers & solutions • Check your answers against our explanations. Remember, there are no ‘trick’ birds or extreme rarities among these…

ID Tips & tricks • Here are a few extra tips to help you identify close-up corvids

GO BIRDING • 10 great sites for brilliant birdwatching

MORAY HOPEMAN • Sea ducks, waders and possible migrant passerines

ARGYLL LOCH DON • A sea loch with good wader habitat, and chance of eagles

NORTHUMBERLAND COCKLAWBURN • Sand dunes, farmland, rocky beach and mixed woodland

NORTH YORKSHIRE YORK • Discover the bird life amidst the city’s tourist attractions

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE CLUMBER PARK • Mixed habitats in a beautiful, scenic setting

SUFFOLK ORFORD NESS • Migrants, rarities and more on an isolated peninsula

HEREFORDSHIRE KING ARTHUR’S CAVE • A historic site close to the River Wye

GREATER LONDON NUNHEAD CEMETERY • A wooded oasis in the midst of urban sprawl

WEST SUSSEX ADUR ESTUARY • A riverside walk for shorebirds and passage migrants

DEVON LOXBEARE • Well hedged farmland with veteran trees

YOUR VIEW • PHOTOS, LETTERS, TWEETS, QUESTIONS - HAVE YOUR SAY

Reader Shots

PICS FROM OUR FACEBOOK...