Book Review - Europe's Birds - WILDGuides - Princeton University Press

 

     One develops an expectation that WILDGuides will produce consistently high quality field guides, and in keeping with that tradition Europe's Birds does not disappoint.

     It used to be, not so long ago in fact, that photographic guides were considered second rate, and it has taken time for them to be accepted on the same level as conventional pictorial guides.

     The single most important factor in this change of attitude is the ubiquity of digital photography and the simple fact that every birder on the planet has a camera with her/him at all times, if only on a phone. The quality of images obtainable from these portable devices seems to grow exponentially with each upgrade to smart phones and the like. More and more birders go into the field armed with a camera, many with lenses that challenge one's capacity to carry them!

     The result is that a publisher has access to a wide range of photographs, literally thousands for some species. Across the range of photographers it is likely that both sexes are covered, nestlings, fledglings, juveniles, seasonal plumages, moult, standing, flying, feeding. The biggest complaint against early photographic guides was that images were often fuzzy, under- or over-exposed, and failed to show the diversity of the species. Pictures were generally provided by a small number of "expert photographers", those specializing in wildlife shots.

     Europe's Birds features the work of no less than 349 photographers and contains a staggering 4,700 images; clear, sharp images too!

     I very carefully checked the photographs of birds that are usually extremely difficult to photograph - swifts for example - and without exception they are superbly illustrated with high quality images, showing different ages and plumage variations, with accompanying notes. Remarkable!

     I just opened the book at random, and it opened at page 393 - Bluethroat. There are eight exceptional pictures showing adults, juveniles and subspecies, males and females. This is really outstanding coverage and this is typical of the treatment of all species throughout the book.

     As a person who loves maps, I wish that the range maps were a little larger, but given the constraints imposed by space, compromise was necessary somewhere. And the maps are perfectly adequate for a field guide.

     I have checked the accounts for about a hundred species across several families and have found not one factual error. The book is an outstanding compendium of pictures and text, for the most part all contained on a single page.

     If you are in the market for a new field guide to the birds of Europe, you could do little better than this important new addition to the literature. It covers 928 species with the kind of precision that will help you not only identify the birds, but become a better birder in the process.

     What could be better than that?

Europe's Birds - An identification guide

Authors: Andy Swash, Rob Hume, Hugh Harrop and Robert Still

Paperback - US$29.95 - ISBN 9780691177656

640 pages - 4,700 colour photographs - 540 maps

5 7/8 x 8 1/4 in. (14.69 x 20.63 cm)

Publication date: 7 December 2021