Is that a chaffinch, greenfinch or bullfinch at the bird feeder? Do you know a great tit from a blue tit? Covering the top 50 birds seen in parks and gardens, including ponds and rivers.

Designed for speedy bird identification with living birds in the garden, the guide features beautiful colour paintings by Chris Shields. We have arranged the illustrations by size and colour. First use the dots on the left-hand side of the page as a guide to size. Then use the headings across the bottom to select the most obvious colours. We have included different forms for males, females and juveniles where appropriate. Similar looking birds, like the thrushes, pigeons and crows, are close to each other for easy comparison.

As well as the paintings, the reverse side of the Garden Birds guide contains concise notes for each species. This text covers body size, months active, markings and other clues like call and behaviour.

Confused by primary feathers, secondary feathers, crown, nape and median wing coverts? Also included are diagrams of the key parts of the upper side and lower side of birds. Many parts of a bird have familiar names, but special words are used for different groups of feathers. Practice using these names on more common birds, so when you see an unusual bird in the garden you can describe it accurately.