Mini-field guide: 125 Catalan birds you should know

I must admit that this guide is one of the most gratifying results of my work — as pleasing or even more so than illustrating a scientifically rigorous, dense, lavish, prestigious magna obra that will be sold around the world.

You have here a small – albeit that unfolded it measures almost 1 m – pamphlet (eight ‘faces’ in all) that describes 125 Catalan birds that you ‘should’ get to know. A light-weight, pocket-sized, attractive, cheap and appealing guide that everyone can afford. I’m looking forward to seeing kids and adults alike using this ‘small but large’ guide to take their first steps as birdwatchers and as naturalists in general. Here are a few examples of some pages:

Along with friend and designer Lluc Julià. whose designs are so precise and elegant, we had the idea of this guide a number of years ago. But it wasn’t until another friend, Francesc Kirchner, from ORYX, the ‘nature-lover’s shop’ in Barcelona, offered to publish it that it has seen the light of day. Our miniguide also forms part of a beginner’s birdwatching kit (guide+binoculars+notebook+bag) that was produced by ORYX to mark the holding of the second Delta Birding Festival and the emission of the birdwatching TV programme “Tocats de l’ala”, on Catalan TV3. It can also be bought separately for just 5 €.

We trust that this miniguide will be successful and that we can begin to produce dozens of such guides. Indeed, we already have a number of other guides half-finished, having worked in collaboration with experts in the choice of species and the writing of the texts. Can you imagine how great it would be to have guides to the wild mushrooms, grasshoppers and crickets, orchids, butterflies, snails, gastropods, reptiles or vegetables of Catalonia? We can!