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The books in this section are ordered by publication date with the most recent at the top.

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Some of which include all rare migrants and vagrants that have been recorded in Britain and Europe.

Collins BTO Guide to Rare British Birds

Paul Sterry, Paul Stancliffe

2015

"This book is the companion volume to the Collins BTO Guide to British Birds. It covers all the rare and scarce birds that have occurred in Britain and Ireland four times or more, as of February 2015. ‘The Rarest of the Rare’ section lists all the species that have occurred fewer than four times; taken in combination, this means that every species of wild bird that has ever occurred in Britain is mentioned. Species descriptions comprise the bulk of the book, and the text and photographs describe and illustrate the key features needed to identify these birds with confidence. Confusion species are included, as are vocalisation details for species whose identification it aids. The photographs have been chosen carefully to show key features that are described in the accompanying text; they also give clues to the usual habitat favoured by the bird and its typical posture. Many of the photographs are seen here for the first time. ‘ID Key Feature’ pages provide a quick guide to a group of species or families; they describe the structural and behavioural features that an observer should concentrate on initially when they come across an unfamiliar bird. Where relevant, these feature pages also highlight identification pitfalls."

Extremely Rare Birds in the Western Palearctic

Marcel Haas

2012

"This book describes in detail the 157 species of extremely rare birds that have occurred in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. All species that have occurred less than 10 times have been included. The records are listed with references to books and articles, and include a photograph of the actual individual, if available."

Rare Birds Where and When: An Analysis of Status and Distribution in Britain and Ireland: Vol. 1, Sandgrouse to New World Orioles

Russell Slack

Chapter on vagrancy patterns: Alex Lees and James Gilroy

Illustrations: Ray Scally and Julian Hough

Rare Bird Books

2009

Covers 220 species. For each species there is an overview of distribution, nomenclature, status, Western Palearctic records and trends and patterns in occurrence. For species that have occurred on more than 20 occasions there is an in-depth analysis of records supported by histograms and graphs. For species that have occurred on fewer than 20 occasions there is a complete list of all records with additional analysis.

Birds New to Britain 1980-2004

Adrian Pitches & Tim Cleeves

2005

Since 1980, a total of 76 bird species have been found for the first time in Britain. Each individual, although hopelessly lost and quite possibly doomed, has brought birding celebrity for its finder, and a swarm of admirers to view the bird itself. This new book is the successor to Birds New to Britain and Ireland by Sharrock and Grant (Poyser, 1982), which covered the new birds discovered between 1958 and 1980. The accounts of each new bird's finder are reproduced from their original sources (mainly from British Birds and Birding World). This is fascinating reading for everyone who has an interest in migration and vagrancy, has made the journey to see any of the birds concerned, or has ever dreamed of finding a 'first' of their own.

Birds New to Britain and Ireland: 1600-1999

Philip Palmer

Arlequin

2000

A guide to nearly 350 species that have been recorded in Britain for the first time after 1600.

Photographic Handbook of the Rare Birds of Britain and Europe

Dominic Mitchell and Steve Young

1999

"Detailed field descriptions accompany this comprehensive collection of photographs of over 300 rare birds that have occurred in Europe in the last 50 years. It includes all the uncommon birds from true vagrants and vagrant subspecies, to very rare breeding birds. Each description includes details of habit and range, characteristic plumage and behavioural features and details of each and every occurrence throughout Europe. It has been carefully researched with up-to-date information from leading bird watchers and Rarity Committees."

Rare Birds In Britain And Ireland: A Photographic Record

D. Cottridge, K Vinnicombe

1997

"This text catalogues the events and problems involved in identifying the first and subsequent sightings of the rare birds that have appeared in Britain and Ireland. It brings together information on the weather conditions, the problems involved in seeing each particular bird, who saw it and how many times that species has reappeared and where. This is the information that is of interest to twitchers, as it gives them a unique insight into when the species might reappear, and thus when they should organize their trips."

Rare Birds Day by Day

S. Dudley, T. Benton, P. Fraser and J.Ryan

Illustrations: David Nurny

1996

"This new and novel way of presenting rare bird data will prove fascinating to anyone with an interest in finding and watching rare migrant and vagrant species. It covers 282 rare species and sub-species found in Britain and Ireland with over 20,000 individual records of rare birds listed day by day in diary style. Each individual bird appears on the date it was originally found with records listed in country order together with the finding site, number of birds and length of stay. It will prove a valuable and fun tool for the keenest rarity hunters, enabling them to use the book as a rare bird predictor, by closely following the birds found on each date over the 36 years covered by the book."

Status of Rare Birds in Britain and Ireland, 1800-1990

Lee G.R. Evans

1994

Analysis of the Occurrence of Rare Birds in Britain in Relation to Weather

A. Austin, N.A. Clark, J.J.D. Greenwood, M.M. Rehfisch

1993

A 79 page report.

A Field Guide to the Rare Birds of Britain and Europe

Ian Lewington, P Alstrom, P. Colston

1991

A guide to all the rare, accidental and vagrant birds reliably recorded in Britain and Europe. Covering over 300 species, this major publication is intended as a companion to Peterson, Mountfort and Hollom's Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe, and it is hoped to update it every 2-3 years as new species are recorded. For each species covered, details of all plumages are given, with brief descriptions of habitat and behaviour, range, and status. For each there is a small text drawing. The colour plates usually illustrate adults of both sexes (unless the sexes are indistinguishable in the field), but distinctive seasonal or age differences in plumage are also illustrated.

Rare Birds of Britain and Ireland: A Personal Survey of Over 300 Unusual Visitors

David Saunders

1991

"The author of this book has researched past historical sightings and locations where the watcher is most likely to find a bird not normally seen in the British Isles or ones which may appear on these shores only once in a lifetime. He describes conditions that may give rise to a rare visitor, his personal experiences in spotting rarities and relates anecdotes about past visitors. This is a book for both twitchers and armchair enthusiasts and includes birds such as the Aleutian tern, the Golden-winged warbler, the egret and the long-tailed duck."

Rare Birds in Britain & Ireland

J.N. Dymond, P.A. Fraser, and S.J. Gantlett

Poyser

1989

"A study of more than 300 species of scarce and rare birds that were recorded in Britain and Ireland between 1958 and 1985. Additional rarities from outside this period are also listed. The book succeeds two earlier Poyser publications; Scarce Migrant Birds in Britain and Ireland (Sharrock 1974) and Rare birds in Britain and Ireland (Sharrock 1976)."

Birds New to Britain and Ireland

J.T.R. Sharrock and P.J. Grant

Poyser

1982

"The 83 species featured in this book, in date sequence of discovery, had not been recorded in Britain or Ireland before 1946. The original accounts of the sightings published in issues of British Birds* between 1947 and 1982 are now reprinted and supplemented with comment by Dr Sharrock on subsequent occurrences and current status. In addition, Peter Grant provides identification notes drawing attention to points not covered in the original accounts. There is also a world distribution map for each species and a line illustration to head each of the accounts. At the end of the book a section of plates reproduces 81 'first-sighting' photographs covering 32 of the species in the book."

The Popular Handbook Of Rarer British Birds

P.A.D. Hollom

1980

A revised version of the book originally published in 1960.

Rare Birds in Britain & Ireland

J T R Sharrock

Poyser

1976

This book covers 221 species. An updated version of this book (Rare Birds in Britain and Ireland: J.N. Dymond, P.A. Fraser, and S.J. Gantlett) was published by Poyser in 1989.

Scarce Migrant Birds in Britain & Ireland

J T R Sharrock

Poyser

1974

"How many are seen? How regularly do they come? Where do they occur? When are they likely to be spotted? The above questions are authoritatively answered by the author, Dr J. T. R. Sharrock, honorary secretary of the British Ornithologists' Union's Record Committee and of the Rare Breeding Birds Panel, joint convenor of the European Ornithological Atlas Committee, and a member of the British Birds Rarities Committee and of the Irish Records Panel. Dr Sharrock takes a ten-year period and investigates in detail all the records of a selection of birds which occur here as scarce migrants - birds from Europe, from Asia and from America. He considers their breeding and wintering ranges, and the patterns of their records in Britain and Ireland, and tries to determine, also ... Why do they visit us at all?"

The Popular Handbook Of Rarer British Birds

P.A.D. Hollom

1960

Describes over 100 species all of which are illustrated in colour. Some of the text and illustrations are taken from the 1938 to 1941 Handbook Of British Birds. The text has been updated and 30 species not recorded in Britain at the time of the Handbook have been added. New plates by David Reid-Henry. This book was revised in 1980.

Rare and Extinct Birds of Britain

Ralph Whitlock

1953

A history of rare and extinct birds of Britain.

Lost And Vanishing Birds

Charles Dixon

John MacQueen

1898

From the preface:

"One of the saddest features of civilisation is the disappearance of so many beautiful and curious creatures from this world of ours. From all parts of the earth the same story comes; and we now seem to be within measurable distance of a time when wrecks and remnants of once compact and indigenous assemblages of organisms will be all that remain to us, and such a thing as a complete fauna will be unknown. This is not only a crime, but the violation of a sacred trust which we hold for posterity. Civilisation has already ground away under its merciless heel most of the faunal facies of Europe; Asia fares but little better, and is fast being reduced to the same state ; Africa is being rapidly depleted of all its most curious and striking forms of animal life; Australasia is a wretched object lesson of civilised man's exterminating progress ; whilst North America has already lost some of its ancient types, and is fast losing the remainder: South America alone retains its prehistoric fauna in greatest completeness, although even here the sad work of extermination has commenced. Birds have suffered severely in this general spoliation, and their extermination and persecution furnish material for some of the saddest chapters in the annals of ornithology. In the present volume an effort has been made not only to focus in a popular form our knowledge of the species we have lost and are still likely to lose, but to excite a greater interest in the protection of birds, particularly in those species, at home and abroad, that are more or less threatened with extermination at the present time."

Our Rarer Birds : Being Studies In Ornithology & Oology

Charles Dixon

Frontispiece: J.G. Keulemans

Richard Bentley & Sons

1888

From the preface:

"The following Studies deal principally with the habits and economy of those rarer British birds which, from the remote and secluded districts they frequent, the localness of their distribution, and their shy and retiring disposition, do not come very generally under the notice of casual observers. In wandering through the woods or along the shore, or over the mountains and the moors, the observer often obtains a cursory glimpse of these our rarer birds; the object of this volume is to enable him to identify them, and to make him familiar with their habits and characteristics. Fifteen years of my life have been spent in this labour of love - in gathering from personal observation the facts which are here recorded. The greater part of these pages has been written in the places where my information was obtained - in field and forest, on mountain and cliff, with the birds themselves around me. The naturalist may doubtless find some facts new to him in these Studies, and many questions relating to the economy of birds have been discussed. In the following pages I have always endeavoured to lead the observer to a contemplation of those higher questions of Natural Science which Ornithology so aptly illustrates, and to put him in the way of appreciating the scientific value of his researches. I also believe that in publishing my observations within the compass of a single volume, I am filling a want long felt by field naturalists, who have hitherto only been able to obtain any information respecting our rarer birds from large and costly works on British Ornithology. In making my selection of our rarer birds from the four hundred species which are regarded as British, I have used every care, weighing impartially the claims of each to bie so considered. "Our Rarer Birds," so far as the purposes of the work before us are concerned, are species that cannot be met with everywhere, like the Robin and the Thrush, the Sparrow and the Swallow; and in addition I have laid it down as a sine qua non that each must breed within the confines of the British Islands. In this I follow the ornithological axiom that a bird's breeding-place is its true home. Exception has only been made in the case of the Knot; and I am pleased to see that the Snow Bunting's nest has been actually obtained in Sutherlandshire, at an elevation of nearly three thousand feet. The classification I have adopted is what seems to me the most natural, although the many gaps in my list of species, which only a selection of British birds necessarily entails, breaks much of the proper order of sequence. Probably the classification of birds is as far from a definite and natural settlement as ever it was, no two authorities agreeing in their ideas as to the relative value of anatomical characters. Where doctors disagree so woefully, it is not possible within the restrictions of space here laid down either to discuss the pros and cons of scientific arrangement, or to become responsible for any new departure. This work is written for the lover of birds, not for the student of their pedigree or the quibbler over their classification."

A History Of The Rarer British Birds

T.C. Eyton

Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, and Houlston and Son

1836

Originally published in three monthly parts.

From the preface:

The principal objects that the Author of the following pages had in view in presenting them to the Public, were, in the first place, to complete, as far as lay in his power, the series of woodcuts of British Birds begun by the late Thomas Bewick of Newcastle, thus enabling those, to whom it may not be convenient to purchase the more splendid but at the same time expensive Illustrations, to possess, at a moderate cost, a series of woodcuts, accompanied with descriptions of the birds of their native country, from which they will be able to recognise any that may, at any time, fall into their hands. Secondly, to present his readers with a complete List of British Birds, with the synonyms of the principal authors on ornithology, in as concise and simple a form as possible, discarding from it all those species that appear to have been introduced from foreign countries.