I reviewed some products from Fine Feather Press before and raved about them, so I was delighted to see that they have just brought out two more products to interest pre-schoolers in our natural world. Numbers 1 to 20 are included in these fold-over, generously sized cards. On the front is the number with a delicate illustration from nature framed in pretty border. Inside each card there are colour illustrations with puzzles and questions to discuss with your child, then the number is repeated on the back. There are so many ways to use these cards – obviously, to learn numbers but also to learn about nature through observation – take the ‘2’ card out for example, and spot the birds. Each activity is different and all provide ways to encourage children to take an interest in nature. The cards are beautifully produced and a joy to use. - Parents in Touch Online Magazine
There seem to be few garden bird books available for very young children, so when this board book came along targeted at age 3 and above I was intrigued to see what it had to offer. It covers 12 garden bird species that most people will encounter in their garden including Great Tit, Greenfinch and Carrion Crow. Each bird has a double page with illustrations and facts including where they are found, what they eat, where they nest and a ‘Did you know’. Down the side of the book are sound buttons corresponding to each species’ song, operated by battery, and consisting of good quality recordings. This is a book that, in fact, could appeal to all ages. The pictures and sounds are great for a young child to learn from, and the facts and descriptions will engage older children. It would also be suitable as a basic book for adults wanting to learn more about gardens birds, giving them the ability to start understanding basic birdsong, or even better – a good opportunity for an adult to spend time with a child, learning together. Clare Simm - British Trust for Ornithology
Being the son of the Fat Birder has its perks, being the granddaughter and namesake has even more, so when the little lady saw The Little Book of Garden Bird Songs by Andrea Pinnington & Caz Buckingham, we made a quick call to the old man and got him to arrange a review copy for us, well birds and our family go hand in hand so we had to really. - When the Dust Settles
Proof that you’re never too old for push-button sound books, this delightful volume helps you get to know the voices in your garden. Pairing 12 different audio recordings with oft-seen garden birds illustrated in fine and quite lovely detail, it includes informative profiles and surprising facts. Fun for all the family. - Nature's Home RSPB Magazine
Take a well-put-together board book (don’t worry about it being a board book – no one is going to say that they’re a bit too old for a board book once they see it), add exquisite pictures of a dozen birds – one on each double-page spread – and then fill in the details. You’ll need the name of the bird in English and Latin and a description of the bird in words which a child can understand but which won’t patronise an adult. Then you’ll need details of where the bird is found, what it eats, where it nests, how many eggs it lays, how the male and female adults differ and their size. Then you need a ‘Did you know?’ fact and this needs to be something which will interest children, but which adults might not know either. Does it sound simple? Well it isn’t, but ‘The Little Book of Woodland Bird Songs’ does it perfectly. And there’s a bonus, but I’ll tell you about that in a moment. - The Bookbag
The Little Book of Garden Bird Songs by Caz Buckingham and Andrea Pinnington brings the calming tweets of your favourite garden birds into your home, teaching you the common calls of the robin, chaffinch and even blue tit. Perfect to encourage little ones to learn about their feathered friends, the book comes with 12 different bird song recordings to accompany detailed imagery and facts about each beautiful bird. Find out which yellow and blue bird can lay up to 12 speckled eggs at a time, which bird has a different accent according to where they are from and which glorious green creature has a beak perfectly shaped for cracking open nuts and seeds. A colourful and engaging book, The Little Book of Garden Bird Songs is a fun way to learn about the sounds of your garden. - Landlove Magazine
Beautiful book. My grandsons love learning about each birds habitat, their feeding habits, how many eggs they produce and what they look like.. They love listening to the clear realistic calls of each bird and being able to identify them outdoors. A faboulous book for both children and adults, highly recommended and very eductional. The garden bird song book is equally as good...worth buying both.!!!! - Amazon
Excellent value - I actually bought it for my mother who is chair bound and has dementia so that she can activate it herself and listen to the birdsong. - Amazon
My children and I absolutely adore this book (and the other book we have about garden birds). The sounds are so clear it's lovely to listen to. I know it says woodland birds but we are lucky enough to live in a quiet spot where we've had almost all of these birds in the garden so my son likes to take it outside, listen to the birds and try to match it up with the book. A great way to encourage more outdoors time. The pictures are lovely and clear with just a few simple facts appropriate for young children. - Amazon
These are delightful sound books. The bird songs are clear and vibrant, to the extent that when I first tried them in the office, Rosalind, our designer, looked around to see where the robin had come in! At home, my children are really enjoying these books. We’ve tried to match what we are hearing outside with the birds in the book, and I found them testing each other on different bird songs. There is a colour photo and glossary of information for each bird, explaining things such as where they are found, what they eat and what eggs they lay. There are also illustrations of habitat and a description of each song to help identify them. If, like me, you like birds and are keen to try and learn their songs, this is a great way for you and your children to start, or to improve your knowledge. - Juno Magazine
I do all I can to encourage my kids to play outside. I won’t lie though, sometimes it can be difficult to coax them out of a nice, warm house and to enjoy a bracing, healthy walk. A couple of weeks back, however, I was sent a copy of The Little Book of Woodland Bird Songs. Published by the appropriately named Fine Feather Press, it has 12 recorded bird songs and basic information on each species. Would my children, especially the eldest, Helen, be tempted to venture outside and see if they could identify any of the birds? The short answer is yes, they were very keen, particularly Helen. I have to say, I am not a twitcher at all. I think it comes with being a country boy. What you grow up with and what surrounds you sometimes goes unnoticed. I’ve generally taken the approach that birds are, well, just all around you really! Using this book, however, was very interesting. It actually made me listen out for the different bird songs. There are a variety to listen out for including cuckoo, pheasant, buzzard and willow warbler, to name a few. Helen loved it. I mean she really, really enjoyed listening out for the birds and then reading about them. I think what helped is that we stumbled across a Nuthatch pretty much immediately. - Dad Blog UK
My kids paid no attention to our garden bird feeder – until I gave them this book. It plays birdsong and is crammed with quirky facts. Now they fight to put out the seed! - Sabah Wilson, Woodland Trust Magazine
The Woman’s Weekly team all loved these fantastic books which not only explain all about the appearance, habitat and behaviour of garden and woodland birds respectively, but play their calls at the touch of a button on the side panels. Bus as they’re intended for children, I thought it only right to test them out with the help of gorgeous twins, Jack and Dan. As you can see, they found them fascinating too! - Woman’s Weekly
A bird book with a difference, The Little Book of Woodland Bird Songs, £12.99, will teach your little ones not just to recognise the birds they see on country walks, but the ones they hear too. With the songs of British birds (long-tailed tit, great spotted woodpecker, cuckoo, nuthatch, willow warbler, goldcrest, buzzard, jay, wood pigeon, coal tit, pheasant and tawny owl) each at the touch of a button, it’s a perfect present for tiny twitchers. - The Sunday Mirror
This beautifully illustrated guide to 12 species is brought to life with touch-of-a-button birdsong. Predictably, my boys were more interested in the buttons than the simple introductions and factfiles, but loved testing each other (and me) at the end, adding the mew of a buzzard and the squeak of a great spotted woodpecker chick to the more familiar tawny hoot and woodpigeon coo. - Sarah McPherson, BBC Wildlife Magazine
Take a well-put-together board book (don't worry about it being a board book - no one is going to say that they’re a bit too old for a board book once they see it), add exquisite pictures of a dozen birds - one on each double-page spread - and then fill in the details. You'll need the name of the bird in English and Latin and a description of the bird in words which a child can understand but which won't patronise an adult. Then you'll need details of where the bird is found, what it eats, where it nests, how many eggs it lays, how the male and female adults differ and their size. Then you need a 'Did you know?' fact and this needs to be something which will interest children, but which adults might not know either. Does it sound simple? Well it isn't, but The Little Book of Woodland Bird Songs does it perfectly. And there's a bonus, but I'll tell you about that in a moment. The pictures are beautiful - they bring the birds to life and you can really see the details, from how the feathers lie and the shape of the beak through to how the claws grip a branch. There's a wide selection of birds too - the long-tailed tit, great spotted woodpecker, cuckoo, nuthatch, willow warbler, goldcrest,buzzard, jay, woodpigeon, coal tit, pheasant and tawny owl. It's a careful selection - in most parts of the country you're likely to encounter some if not all of the birds. The details are clear - you'll know where to look for each bird and sometimes that's an aid to identification. You'll recognise the eggs - but please restrict this to looking at the broken shells rather than into nests. But it's the 'Did You Know?' facts which I loved. Did you know that the domed nest which a long-tailed tit builds may take as long as three weeks to construct and is lined with around 1500 soft feathers? Or that jays bury nuts in the autumn and return to them when food is scarce in the winter? But I was going to tell you about the bonus, wasn't I? My great delight is being able to lie in bed of a morning and listen to birdsong - or to take a walk in the woods and just ‘’listen’’ to the sounds around me. Well, to the right of the pages is a panel with pictures of all the birds in the book and when you press the picture you hear the bird’s song and the quality is really excellent. We get a lot of wood pigeons coming into the garden and I could easily have believed that the sound was coming from the outside. The recordings are battery powered but don't worry about little fingers getting to the battery - you need one of those very small screwdrivers which you can never find when you need one to open the battery compartment. It just goes to prove that you are never too old for a board book - or a sound book for that matter. - The Bookbag
I have been enjoying this board book, and its companion 'The Little Book of Garden Bird Songs', for the last few weeks. Each features 12 species which it covers with a short and engaging paragraph of introductory text, attractive photographs and some interesting facts. In addition, a panel of 12 buttons allows you to match the corresponding photograph and play the song or call of each species. While these books will be useful and interesting to adults who enjoy learning about birds and birdsong, they are also ideal for use with children. I have a three-year-old son and have been trying them out on him. The pages are made of thick card, so resist mauling, and there are various ways in which a child can engage, depending on their age and reading skills. My son seemed to quickly grasp that each species makes a distinctive sound and he's begun to learn the bird names and even some of their calls. With a little bit of creativity it would be straightforward to make a game to reinforce learning. In summary I'd warmly recommend these books as a learning aid for both adults and children. Mastering the 24 species that they introduce would be a giant first stride into the pleasure of bird song and would add another dimension of enjoyment to time in the countryside. - Ben Darvill. British Trust for Ornithology Magazine
Thank you, a joy for all the family. Brilliant! - Amazon
Wonderful sounds. Bought for dad who has dementia and loves wildlife. It's not just a quick burst of indistinct noise, it's a prolonged proper birdsong. Dad loves it - Amazon
What a treat! I really did mean to just glance at The Little Book of the Dawn Chorus but the pull of the sounds of a dozen different birds singing their hearts out was far too much to resist on a cold and rather wet February morning. I spent an indulgent hour or so reading all about the birds and listening to their song. Then - just because I could - I went back and did it all again and it was just as good the second time around. So, what do you get? There are a dozen birds, some of which will feature in most people's dawn chorus - the skylark, redstart, swallow, song thrush, robin, blackbird, yellowhammer, wren, chiffchaff, house sparrow, collared dove and starling. They're in that order for a good reason as we meet the birds in the order in which they initiate or join the dawn chorus. The skylark begins at ninety minutes before sunrise, with the starling coming in last at just fifteen minutes before the sun's over the horizon. You get a timing for each bird. Whilst you're listening to them sing you can read all about them. There's a brief description of each bird followed by information about their habitat, when you'll see and hear them, what they eat, how the male and female differ and a size guide. Then there's a Did You Know? point, such as the fact that skylarks which sing late on in the season are usually males which have failed to find a mate. There's a picture of the bird and - without exception - these are exquisite. Some will be almost lifesize and there's an amazing amount of detail in the plumage. I'd happily hang every one of them on the wall. All of this would be excellent on its own, but it's difficult to overstate the delight of actually listening to the birds. There's a plastic panel to the right of the book (don't worry - it all folds up together and shelves neatly) and inset into this are pictures of the heads of each birds. Press the head and you'll hear the song. The quality of the recording is excellent: I was particularly impressed by the song of the blackbird - which sent shivers down my spine. The recordings are powered by batteries - when it comes to replacing them you'll need three LR44 batteries which are securely housed behind a panel which can only be accessed by using a very small four-point screwdriver. You need steady hands and the patience of a saint to get the panel open, so there's no reason why a child over the age of 36 months shouldn't use the book. I'm sure that they'll love it - and it will be one of the few sound toys which they have which you'll encourage them to play over and over again - even in the early hours of the morning. If this book appeals then you'll also love The Little Book of Garden Bird Song. - The Bookbag
The Little Book of the Dawn Chorus (Fine Feather Press), by Andrea Pinnington and Caz Buckingham, is a sound book of genuine charm, whose attractiveness persists well beyond the novelty of pushing the buttons. From the “little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese” of the yellowhammer’s call to the “coo, coo- oo, cook” of the collared dove, the members of the chorus are lovingly counted off, with their Latin names, the times before sunrise at which they sing and enticing titbits of trivia – such as the fact that a starling can imitate a chainsaw – offered up against a background of crisp, vivid bird photography. This sweet-voiced introduction to a true quotidian miracle will make twitchers of listeners young or old; it may also prompt the purchase of sister volumes, chronicling the songs of garden and woodland birds. - Imogen, Russell Williams, The Times Literary Supplement
I shall definitely be keeping this book to hand in early spring, to help me identify the birds joining in the dawn chorus. It's such a magical time of year and being able to pick out individual bird sounds makes it even better; this lovely book features 12 British birds you might hear, with a sound button for each, which is remarkably realistic. Alongside is a beautiful image of each bird, with the Latin name, key facts listed and a description of each bird. I love the fact that the number of minutes before sunrise the bird sings is included - I have never seen this before and it really helps identification; the birds are listed in this order. Another lovely book from the Fine Feather Press, who do so much to encourage children to appreciate nature. - Parents in Touch Online Magazine
