Covering 282 rare species and sub-species (plus records for a further 18 Category D species) found in Britain and Ireland, around 20,000 individual records of rare birds are listed in diary style, with each individual bird appearing on the date on which it was originally found, along with all the other rare birds found on that date between 1958 and 1994.

Rare Birds Day by Day follows three earlier Poyser titles looking at scarce and rare birds recorded in Britain and Ireland, Scarce Migrant Birds in Britain and Ireland (Sharrock, 1974), Rare Birds in Britain and Ireland (Sharrock & Sharrock, 1976) and Rare Birds in Britain and Ireland (Dymond, Fraser & Gantlett, 1989). Like these previous books, this latest rare bird title has been brought to you by well-known and experienced British birders and rare bird finders.

This book, however, differs markedly from the earlier volumes, in that it moves away from the traditional presentation of species in systematic order. Each record is listed in county order and is accompanied by the finding site, number of birds (for multiple records) and length of stay (for those birds remaining for more than one day).
This new and novel way of presenting rare bird data will prove fascinating to anyone with an interest in finding and watching rare migrant and vagrant species. It will also prove a valuable and fun tool for the keenest rarity hunters, enabling them to use the book as a rare bird predictor, by following closely the birds found on each date over the 36 years covered by the book.
The book is enlivened with illustrations by Dave Nurney, most of them specifically prepared for this volume.