Europe

European Bee-eaters Merops apiaster ©Svetoslav Tsvetanov Simeonov
Birding Europe

It is not Chauvinism that has led to many European sites being omitted but ignorance. This Fat Birder can just about understand how to order a pint in French and not even that in any other European language. I know that most other Europeans can find their way around the English language whereas we Brits are pathetic at speaking any other language but our own. So, if there are sites out there that deserve to be listed here please let us know (in English with an English title as well as one in the preferred language please) and we will make sure that the links are included.

The books listed below are Europe wide in coverage and may be a place to start for non-European visitors. The Collins guide is simply the best field guide bar none. The others useful references.

The overall field guide will be of use for all the European countries but is not repeated on every page. Where possible we add recommendations for particular countries.

This page is sponsored by Rockjumper Birding Tours

Top Sites
  • Birding Places

    Website
    Birdingplaces.eu is made by and for birdwatchers. Please help us to fill the map of Europe and share your favourite birding spots with us.
Useful Reading

  • A Naturalist's Guide to the Birds of Britain & Northern Europe

    | By Peter Goodfellow | John Beaufoy Books | 2019 | Edition 2 | Paperback | 160 pages, 300 colour photos | ISBN: 9781912081219 Buy this book from NHBS.com
  • Birding in Eastern Europe

    | By Gerard Gorman | Wildsounds | 2006 | Paperback | 288 pages, illustrations | ISBN: 9781898665076 Buy this book from NHBS.com
  • Birds in Europe

    | (Population Estimates, Trends and Conservation Status) | By BirdLife International, Ian J Burfield & Frans van Bommel | BirdLife International | 2004 | Paperback | 374 pages, b/w illustrations, colour maps, tables | ISBN: 9780946888528 Buy this book from NHBS.com
  • Birds of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East

    | (An Annotated Checklist) | By Dominic Mitchell | Lynx Edicions | 2017 | Hardback | 335 pages, 1 b/w illustration, 1 b/w map | ISBN: 9788494189296 Buy this book from NHBS.com
  • Birds of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East

    | (A Photographic Guide) | By Frédéric Jiguet &Aurélien Audevard | Princeton University Press | 2017 | Paperback | 47 pages, 2200 colour photos, colour distribution maps | ISBN: 9780691172439 Buy this book from NHBS.com
  • Collins Bird Guide

    | By Lars Svensson, Killian Mullarney & Dan Zetterström | HarperCollins | 2023 | Third Edition | Paperback | 478 pages, 4000+ colour illustrations, 700 colour distribution maps | ISBN: 9780008547462 Buy this book from NHBS.com
  • Europe's Birds - An Identification Guide

    | By Andy Swash, Rob Hume, Hugh Harrop & Robert Still | WILDGuides | 2021 | Flexibound | 640 Pages, 540 maps, 4700 colour photois | ISBN: 9780691177656 Buy this book from NHBS.com
  • The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland

    | By Richard Crossley & Dominic Couzens | Princeton University Press | 2-13 | Paperback | 304 Pages | 310 Plates with Colour Photos | 250 Colour Distribution Maps | ISBN: 9780691151946 Buy this book from NHBS.com
Birding Aps
  • *Individual Country Bird Apps

    See Individual country pages for apps relating to that country

  • BIRD SONGS of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East

    Apple iOS |
    | Mullen & Pohland GbR | Sunbird Apps |

    This is the professional app to the renowned reference work of Schulze and Dingler covering all 800 European species including 2817 songs and calls known from the 17# CD set! This is the best set of songs and calls for this region ever published.
  • Birds of Northern Europe

    Apple iOS |
    | NatureGuides Ltd | 757.2 MB | Requires iOS 9.3 or later |

    A high-quality digital field guide, with bird names in 15 languages, covering 352 species of birds regularly seen in Northern Europe. This list covers all except rarer vagrants and includes every bird likely to be seen by the vast majority of birdwatchers in the region throughout the year. Countries covered include Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Holland (The Netherlands), Belgium, Germany, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Luxembourg and Northern France. Comprehensive information is provided including: multiple annotated illustrations by leading artists showing the full range of plumages including rarer races and variations, beautiful still photographs for many species; songs and calls, maps showing distribution in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East and the full detailed text accounts from the Concise edition of Birds of the Western Palearctic (THE standard reference work originally published by Oxford University Press). Perfect for more experienced birders who will appreciate the comprehensive and professional ornithological content in this App.
  • Birds of Western Palearctic

    Apple iOS | Android
    | mydigitalearth.com | 372 MB | iOS 10.3 or above | Requires Android 3.0 and up |

    This app is an interactive companion to the book "The Handbook of Bird Identification for Europe and the Western Palearctic" – the comprehensive book for birdwatchers interested in the region. It covers ALL the regions found in the book.
  • Collins Bird Guide

    Apple iOS | Android
    | (A field guide to Europe) | NatureGuides Ltd | 907.3 MB | iOS 9 Android OS 5 | English, French, German, Norwegian Bokmål, Swedish |

    Full interactive experience with calls and song as well as text and illustrations from the best fieldguide ever.
Useful Information
  • Birding Places

    Website
    We give birders the opportunity to find and share birdingplaces. With all the details you need for some fine hours of birding. The idea behind Birdingplaces.eu is that as a birdwatcher you help your fellow birders from other regions or countries. By sharing birdingplaces from your own region or great places you discovered abroad. In this way we all can enjoy the thousands of birding gems scattered all over Europe.
  • European Colour-Ringing

    Website
    European colour-ring Birding is a platform between the field-observer and the project-leader. Therefore it can not provide any details or life-list of your sighting. To get this information, you have to go through this website, find the project-leader and contact her/him.
Organisations
  • EURING - European Union for bird ringing

    Website
    Bird ringing? An important technique in ornithology or just a bird watchers hobby? The answer is a fruitful combination of them both. Ringing is a vital tool for scientists, particulary for studying the life histories, population dynamics and movements of birds. Much for the data of this work are gathered by well-trained professional amateurs whose motivation is not money, but the simple privilege of working with birds for the purpose of conservation.
  • Maps & Distribution

    Website
    Maps & Distribution - of the birds of the Western Palearctic Region
Other Links
  • Addresses of all European Ringing Stations

    Website
    Dirk Raes excellent site on colour ringing which most European birders will already know of.
  • Birds On-line

    Website
    Much information on European birds, over 250 pictures, red lists, etc
  • European Bird List

    Information
    Birds occurring in Europe
  • European birds

    Website
    This site gives you information of more than 900 bird species that occur in Western Palearctic. There are also more than 3000 photos of over 340 different species on the site. You can find information in nine different languages and the bird names in 16 languages
  • Ornithomedia

    Website
    Ornithomedia is a web site concerning Birding in Southern Europe: it`s a complete site: news, best spots, bird identification, articles about rarities, Flash animations, etc. An on-line shop sellinmg, for ezample, the new Birding CDROM Sentiers Ornithologiques en France, en Espagne et au Portugal (soon in English).
  • Raptor Identification

    Website
    A building resource to give extensive, detailed and updated information about the identification of European raptors.
Blogs
  • Gerard Gorman

    BLOG
    All about Europe's woodpeckers

Fatbirder - linking birders worldwide... Wildlife Travellers see our sister site: WAND

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