A lavish celebration of the seabirds of the British Isles.
Seabirds are the living links between land, air and sea. They enjoy a freedom that even humans, with all our technological assistance, can barely imagine. Many species travel mind-boggling distances across the length and breadth of our planet before returning to land to breed in large, deafening and confusingly crowded colonies. Yet within this commotion each mated pair forms a bond of extreme closeness and tenderness that survives separation each winter and may persist for decades.
The long and geologically varied coastline of the British Isles provides homes for internationally important numbers of breeding seabirds. Visiting their colonies is always unforgettable, whether they are cliff-faces packed with Guillemots, islands white-capped by clustered Gannets on their nests, flat beaches crowded with screaming Arctic Terns or seaside rooftops overlaid with a second townscape of nesting gulls. The changing fortunes of these seabird cities reveal to us the health of the vast, unseen but incredibly rich marine world that surrounds us.
RSPB Seabirds showcases some of our most exciting and enigmatic bird species as vital and living components of one of our greatest natural assets: our coastline. The author presents detailed biographies of all the seabird species that breed in and around the British Isles, and also looks at the many species that breed elsewhere but which, regularly or occasionally, visit British waters. Every page of this sumptuous book features beautiful photographs of wild seabirds engaged in their daily work of hunting, travelling, protecting themselves and their territories, courting and raising a family.

Marianne Taylor is a freelance writer, illustrator, photographer and editor. Marianne grew up in the seaside town of Hastings in Sussex, and from an early age she could be found watching and scribbling notes about the behaviour of the Herring Gulls nesting outside her sister's bedroom window. A passion for all wildlife, but especially birds and most especially seabirds, has been a driving force in her life ever since. Marianne worked in publishing for seven years before taking the plunge as a freelancer in 2007. Since then she has written 19 books for adults and children on a range of natural history subjects.

Renowned cameraman David Tipling has worked as a freelance wildlife photographer since 1992. David travels extensively photographing some of the world's most iconic wildlife and one of his specialities is the birds of our seas and oceans. His many awards include the prestigious Nature Photographer of the Year. David's work has featured in countless magazines and newspapers and he has been author or commissioned photographer for more than forty books on birds and wildlife photography.

Introduction
Seaducks
Eider
Common Scoter
Red-breasted Merganser
Other seaducks

Divers and grebes
Red-throated Diver
Black-throated Diver
Great Crested Grebe
Slavonian Grebe
Other divers and grebes

Tubenoses
Fulmar
Manx Shearwater
European Storm-petrel
Leach's Storm-petrel
Other tubenoses

Gannets, cormorants and relatives
Gannet
Cormorant
Shag
Other related species

Phalaropes
Grey Phalarope

Skuas
Arctic Skua
Great Skua
Other skuas
Gulls
Kittiwake
Mediterranean Gull
Black-headed Gull
Common Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Herring Gull
Yellow-legged Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Other gulls

Terns
Little Tern
Sandwich Tern
Roseate Tern
Common Tern
Arctic Tern
Other terns

Auks
Guillemot
Razorbill
Black Guillemot
Puffin
Other auks

Recommended reading
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photographic credits
Index