Jim Moir aka Vic Reeves has launched a crowdfunding campaign to publish his new book of bird paintings.

As anyone who follows Moir on social media knows, when not being Britain's top light entertainer he is constantly out and about painting portraits of winged wildlife. He loves birds. This love, a constant passion since he was in short trousers, has flowered into an artistic obsession. As his popularity as a painter has soared in recent years, the simplicity and sincerity of his bird paintings have given them cult status among his fans.

Now, for the first time, these beautiful paintings are all gathered together in one exquisite book. Featuring paintings of eighty British birds, each spread will feature a single bird paired with a single diverting fact. Did you know that feeding white bread to a mallard can cause a potentially fatal condition called ‘Angel Wing’? Or that the lapwing has more nicknames than any other British bird, including flopwing, horneywink, lipwingle, lymptwigg, peesieweep and wallock?

Without the padding of ornithological statistics or long descriptions, this is a book that reminds us why we love birds: because of the shapes, colours and sounds they bring into our lives.Small enough to fit into the pocket of a cagoul, cool enough to adorn a coffee table, this a book for bird lovers of all ages and persuasions, filled with the birds we all see in our gardens or on trips to the country and coast – the ones we know and love best.

Better still, pre-ordering the book through Unbound offers you the chance to buy all kinds of exclusive merchandise from postcards and mugs to prints to t-shirts featuring Jim’s wonderful paintings.

In a year when we’ve all rediscovered the beauty and pleasure they bring into our lives, Birds by Jim Moir is the perfect gift, a wholesome oasis in a desert of tat.

Ten percent of the profit on every book sold will be donated to the RSPB.

Make a pledge here.

There are various levels of pledges. For £30, for example, you get: