Laminated guide to the ‘top 50’ Irish birds

The Birds Connect project has given us an opportunity to produce a user-friendly guide to Ireland’s ‘top 50’ birds. The folding concertina-style guide, designed by Cóilín MacLochlainn, is laminated and weather- resistant, so it can be taken into the field and used there, or you can just keep it by your window. The guide will be distributed to direct provision centres and nursing homes across Ireland over the coming weeks and months. The bird names and introductory texts on the eight-panel guide are presented in four languages: English, Irish, French and Arabic. These texts were kindly translated from English by the Irish Refugee Foundation, the Heritage Council and Fearghas MacLochlainn. People unfamiliar with birds can sometimes feel overwhelmed by their variety.We hope this guide will remove some of the barriers to enjoying birdwatching, by focusing on the birds people are most likely to see and by including multiple languages.