Paul Sterry

One of my favourite reference books. Wonderful to see birds with whole or part of the bird life size. Fantastic pictures, and accompanying text that refers to key features.

Basics: 2003, 1st edition, softcover, 192 pages, 1,000 color photographs, 440 species, range maps

The format of this book is a photo identification guide to be used in the field. The assortment and quality of photos is very good and typically offer multiple shots. Some of the insert photos for winter, juvenile, or races are bit small but they're usually still useful. Other than the wagtails, little attention is given to the subspecies. The desire to pack in many photos -- again, most of which show more are pretty good -- makes for a very busy look. There are 8-17 photos per page. The gulls, raptors, and pipits are especially crammed. With all the photos available, I would have benefitted if there was just one photo that compared the ventral side of the shearwaters while using this book near Turkey.

The one-paragraph text is both concise and potent, giving the necessary descriptions for the bird and to separate it from similar species. Very brief mention is given to the habitat and even more scant attention is given to the vocalizations. This proved to be a weakness when I was listening to a mostly-hidden Olivaceous Warbler.

The range maps use three colors to distinguish the seasonal presence and, despite their small size (1.5 x 2.5cm), are effective since the boundaries of all the Mediterranean countries are shown.

If you're visiting the coastal areas of the Mediterranean, you'll find this book to be very useful. It covers the breeders and most of the expected migrants. I'll still advise you to also carry one of the European guides (specifically, Mullarney's or Jonsson's) for the more detailed and varied illustrations along with the superior in-depth text. show less

Book designed for beginners to bird watching and concentrates on those birds likely to be seen in European gardens (170 or so species) - each species has a double-page spread with the standard compressed info on where (including maps though not easy to find key to different colours!), size, food, call, song, sex and juvenile differences, flight and eggs plus a bit more about their behaviour and recognition, how to attract to your garden and what might be mistaken for. Introductory pages on show more what the different bits of birds are called, bird-friendly gardens etc. Worked on sorting out whether I had seen a redstart or black redstart but no keys as such to narrow down possibilities so really need to flick through until you find something that looks like the bird in question or use the index show less

This book has been invaluable in helping this yankee girl get to grips with the plants she encounters in the UK