Book, Binocular and Clothing Reviews - The Little Book of Garden Bird Songs

When we were offered the chance to review The Little Book of Garden Bird Songs by Andrea Pinnington & Caz Buckingham, we jumped at the offer, if you have kids why wouldn’t you?

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about this book is combination of interesting facts, identification guides (including one large photo of each bird), location guides and more of 12 of the UK’s most common garden birds. But more than that it is also a guide to their songs as each bird has a button associated that plays its call, it is a great tool for youngsters (or the inexperienced) to learn some of the more common bird songs.

My impression of the book is that it will be a great guide for the kids, they are already learning these ones, and can now pick out a Greenfinch when we are out for a wander, as well as a few of the others.

I found the information was enough to give the kids an understanding of each bird, but wasn’t too much for them to take in, and my youngest (5) had fun reading the “Did You Know” sections below each birds photo (these are small one fact snippets).

Five Year Old Bo’s Thoughts:

Bo’s first thoughts were “Wow!” she loved that it had sounds along with the picture and name of the bird. “It has taught me the sounds of the birds” “my favourite song is the Wren”. She liked the different backgrounds the bird pictures were on (it’s odd what kids pick up on, I’d have never even looked at the background).

Over all I think it’s a great book for the kids, I can’t comment as an adult learning as I was already able to recognise the calls (in fact the kids tested me on the first day the book arrived, I got them all right). If you are looking to teach your kids some of the commoner bird songs then I’d highly recommend this book.

Ashley Beolens