Into the Red by Kit Jewitt and Mike Toms
The most important bird book of 2022, this beautiful, tragic, surprising publication is, as the British Trust for Ornithology explains, “a collaboration between 70 authors and 70 artists”, that features the most endangered birds in Britain. Book sales raise funds for conservation work to reverse the decline of birds on the red list.
Birds Through an Opera-Glass by Florence Merriam Bailey
Bird conservation was initiated by women, and so was birdwatching: this groundbreaking 19th-century guide marked the shift from shooting birds for sport to observing them alive.
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Collins Bird Guide by Lars Svensson, Killian Mullarney and Dan Zetterström
Any edition of this book will help with identification, whether you want to know what birds you’re seeing through your window or are racing off after a rare visitor.
Coot Club by Arthur Ransome
The fifth Swallows and Amazons book is a vivid evocation of Norfolk, a gripping adventure story (with boats), and a touching tale of children determined to protect nesting birds.
The Birds by Daphne du Maurier
The short story that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s film, this Cornish winter tale of birds turning on people is a reminder that human acts have unknowable consequences, and shows how dangerously we can slip from sentimental views of the wild to seeing the natural world as alien and threatening.
