Harper Collins UK, publishers of such cornerstone natural history titles as the Collins Bird Guide, British Wildlife, and the monumental New Naturalists series, has now brought online Collins Birds, an exciting new website for bird watchers that combines social networking with extensive online bird reference and reporting resources. Drawing upon Collins’ extensive catalog of bird information compiled through years of producing some of the world’s finest field guides, this new free site offers users the opportunity to look up information on a particular species, report a sighting, maintain a personal checklist, review the latest real-time sightings near them on a satellite map, create sighting alerts for specific birds or locations, help out with user-submitted mystery bird sightings, upload and rate photos, make new friends, and participate in online discussions in the forum.
Like any site with an element of social networking involved or that seeks to build participation in a forum – Collins Birds satisfying both of these categories – in addition to the inherent draw of the wealth of information to be found in the site, there will be a prize draw every month for the just released second edition of the famous Collins Bird Guide, and to celebrate the launch of the site, Collins will also be giving away the only copy to be signed by all three authors. To be entered in this special draw, all that seems to be required is to register on Collins Birds and report at least ten bird sightings by the end of March 2010.
It should also be noted that although Collins Birds is the production of Harper Collins UK, another great name in bird watching is also a sponsor of the new site: Swarovski Optik. While there isn’t anything specifically stated about what their role will be regarding the site in the future, it is fair to assume that with two such long established and accomplished members of the bird watching community behind Collins Birds, the possibilities for both the depth and breadth of its development are seemingly inexhaustible.
