Birdsong: 150 British and Irish birds and their amazing sounds [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

This is an impressive looking book in its own right, but of course what strikes you immediately on picking it up, is the addition of the sound module as an integral part of the whole package - attached quite firmly to the hardback cover, which is extended for this purpose.

I can see downsides and upsides to the arrangement and how much importance you place on these, will determine whether or not you think this is a good idea and worth buying/owning.

On the negative side, you might think that it would be better to have a book, with a CD of numbered birdsongs, so you can have higher sound quality and the flexibility to use the book on its own, or in combination.

For example - this book : RSPB Complete Birds of Britain and Europe is of a similar size, has wonderful illustrations/diagrams and includes a 70 minute CD of Birdsong. If you are looking for a more comprehensive guide, then this may be the better option.

However, I can also see how the sound module package works well and this book concentrates on "Birdsong", rather than just being a guide to birds. The sound module is not up to CD quality, but it is certainly good enough to recognise each bird's distinctive voice and sounds. There are 184 sound samples which are easily accessed using the conveniently-placed controls and with the book on your lap, it is very easy to navigate the different numbered samples and match then with the page at which you are looking.

It is in fact a very enjoyable experience in practice and having the two aspects conveniently combined in front of you, without requiring access to any other medium, makes you more likely to browse and use this book. Each bird gets large photographs and a page of descriptive text. I found myself picking and choosing, to familiarise myself with the birds I am likely to come across and having the audio handy, allows you to easily repeat calls and songs so that you get them fixed in your head and associated with the bird in question.

If you rely on a CD - then this means using a remote and it's not so easy to find and repeat particular tracks. A lot of CD players don't cope well with hundreds of tracks. Some people might not have their CD player conveniently located or even own one - so this is for you.

Also - you can take this book out in the garden and sit there comparing. OK - it's quite a heavy and cumbersome book, which you won't want to put in a rucksack and take to the countryside. But it certainly can be taken into your garden or local park and used there.

Overall an enjoyable and useful book. I found that using this helped me get birdsong fixed in my head, in a way that had not happened previously. The ability to easily repeat calls while browsing the book, is certainly a big selling point. However, if you would prefer to hear Birdsong in the highest sound quality, then it isn't for you

This is a really lovely idea, for anyone who is interested in birdsong and would like to learn the sounds made by birds in Britain and Ireland. It's a nice thick book with big (nearly A4, but wider) pages and with a full-paged size colour photo of every bird. There is a key reference, so if you want to hear what a particular bird sounds like, you enter the code and - voila! - a recording of the bird plays.

So far so good. However, the audio is restricted to a resoundingly lo-fi speaker built into the book itself. Ie, the sound quality is poor. Part of the reason some of us want to learn about birds is because the bird song sounds so beautiful. Not so on the cheap, nasty plastic speaker integrated with the book. It would have been a good idea to include a CD (high fidelity), so that people could listen to the birds on high (or even medium!) quality speakers if they wish.

This is the sort of book that will end up in bargain book basements in a few years' time - precisely because of this poor sound quality, which will put off a large proportion of its intended audience. It's a nice idea, but disappointing that the manufacturers didn't consider sound quality to be an important consideration for their customers.

After a very brief introduction which includes among other things the purpose of bird song and an explanation of bird plumage, this book gets straight down to business looking at each bird individually. Most entries are allocated a page with a half page photograph of the bird and half page of descriptive text, in a good number of cases the entry covers a double page with a full page photograph and a page of text along with an additional small illustration. The very readable text includes a description of the bird's appearance, its song and its habitat. The photographs are of a good standard, typically with the bird shown clearly against an out of focus background; all pictures are in full colour.

Then we come to real point of this publication. Across the top of each page is one or more brief titles: call, alarm call, song, warning call, wing sound etc, and then there is one or more numbers. To the right of the book and as an extension to the back cover is the player. By entering the appropriate number on the small LCD screen and pressing the play button one hears the chosen bird sound; and the sound quality is quite good considering the size of the set up.

This really is a delight, the book alone is well worth having for its lucid text and fine photographs, but to have the bird songs and sounds so easily at hand is a small wonder. In the past I have bought CDs of bird song, but they have never proved satisfactory mainly because it was always so difficult to tie the song to the correct bird, with this there is no question about that, and you have the page with the photograph and text right in front of you too - you can readily associate sound with the bird.

There are 150 birds catalogued here, from the common garden birds to those more rarely, and perhaps for many of us in reality, possibly never encountered.

This is a substantial publication, a quite heavy book measuring 28cm or 11" square and with a sturdy hard cover. The player fits neatly down the side of the book, and comes complete with three AAA batteries. Altogether a marvellous idea beautifully executed.