Vinicombe is best known for his first book, the Macmillan Field Guide to Bird Identification.
Subsequent publications include Rare Birds in Britain and Ireland - a photographic record, co-authored with David Cottridge, in which Vinicombe set out to explain theories about bird vagrancy in Britain and western Europe, including reverse migration.
He was also among the observers who confirmed the identification of Britain's only Mediterranean short-toed lark, at Portland Bill in 1992.
Vinicombe has also studied the status of vagrant wildfowl in Britain and northwest Europe, in particular that of ruddy shelduck[3] and white-headed duck.
A paper on the former species (co-authored with Andrew Harrop) was published in British Birds in 1999.