I received the above as a requested Christmas present from my lovely other half and was so impressed by the books that I thought I should write a brief review.
If you don’t want to read any further here is the takeaway message from this review. This is the new go to ID reference work for the serious birder.
In fact I would go as far as to say that if you’ve got a decent view and/or photos of the bird in question and can’t id with this superb reference work you ain’t going to. It’s probably, however, not a book for the casual birder who wants to know what the bird at the garden feeders is. There are plenty of other less detailed books eminently suitable for this purpose, for example the excellent RSPB guides
The two volumes separately deal with passerines and non-passerines. In general the quality of the book is absolutely superb, both in terms of the quality of material used to manufacture the book and the wonderful plates of the various birds. The English version is translated from the Dutch original but the translation is so perfect you would never guess.
The level of detail and quality is probably best illustrated by means of a few examples.
Firstly, lets have a look at the section on wing structure of Iduna and Hippolais warblers. Eleven plates show in great detail the wing and tail structure of the birds covered, all of which are heavily annotated to draw out the defining features of the various species. The plates for the Sykes’s and Booted Warblers, for example, which can be troublesome to assign to species level , detail the differentiating features of each individual wing feather.
Take another example, the Sub-Alpine complex which, in the absence of calls or song as is often the case with autumn vagrants, can be extremely difficult to assign to species level. Three separate species are now commonly recognised, Eastern, Western and Moltoni’s. The 4 page spread has 19 detailed and annotated plates showing the differentiating features in both male and female adults and juveniles. It also deals with the moult structure allowing you, where possible, to age the birds. In keeping with the rest of the two volumes, all plates are of a very high quality.
For the serious birder who would like to assign Lesser Sand Plover to species level, the section on differentiating the Siberian and Tibetan Sand Plovers has it all. Fourteen plates deal with the plumage in all stages of moult, the general structure of the two, bill length, leg topology etc. and what to look for when seen in flight.
In summary the book is an absolute goldmine of reference material on the birds of Europe. It has the highest level of detail you can possibly imagine supported by high quality visually stunning plates. As such it is an absolute must have for the serious birder.
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