europe

Has been described by leading authorities as ‘ground-breaking’, ‘innovative’ and ‘brilliant’, and scooping the prestigious Birdwatch Magazine Bird Book of the Year Award 2010. This guide accurately describes every key detail of every plumage of all 1,350 species and subspecies that have ever occurred in Britain, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East – the region known as the Western Palearctic. Its level of detail is unprecedented for a book of its size. This book broke the mould for field guides as it contains no colour plates or illustrations, but instead its unique selling point is that for every species the detailed text lists the key characters of each recognizable plumage, including male, female, immature, juvenile, all subspecies and all other variations. This level of detail includes, for example, all eleven forms of ‘Canada goose’ and all eleven forms of ‘yellow wagtail’ known in the region.
The detailed yet concise nature of the guide means that it has become an instant classic, with many birders, including the reviewer for Bird Guides, buying two copies: one for the field and one for reference to keep at home. This handbook is intended as a reference companion for the original field guide. It has larger and more widely spaced text, and more than 100 additional pages, making it much more easy to use. In addition it has been fully updated with additions and amendments to the accounts of nearly every species, all recent taxonomic changes and new species in the region taken on board, and more than 20 tables giving side-by-side comparisons of the features of sets of similar species. There is also a full checklist of Western Palearctic species. Again the book will be endorsed by the renowned journal “British Birds”, which has been running for more than 100 years and which has a dedicated and enthusiastic readership.

The communist regime which put so much of eastern Europe off-limits to wandering birders was paradoxically good for the birds and other forms of wildlife – that is the inescapable conclusion from reading this book. The prevention of development of agricultural practice, and preservation of forests and many wetlands have resulted in eastern Europe being disproportionately important for wildife. The world’s most extensive reedbeds are in Romania, in the Danube Delta. From a pan-European point of view, the most important populations of Pygmy Cormorants, White Pelicans, Red-backed Shrikes, Wolves, Bears and many other species are all here. This book is the key to going about finding these and every other species. There are 56 numbered sites described in detail but in practice around twice this number. This is a highly readable work; a huge amount of information is presented in a structured and palatable way. The result of a vast amount of wide-ranging field research in every corner of the country, plus access to Romanian texts over a period of eight years, many of the sites described are hitherto unheard of beyond the country’s borders. The guide provides information on Romania and Moldova’s mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibia, butterflies and botany, also details of accommodation near every bird site. With a species by species survey of all vertebrates occurring in Romania, including vagrant birds. It contains over sixty detailed birdwatcher’s site maps with specific information on entry into the Danube Delta. Even if you had not thought of visiting Romania, this may well persuade you. And even if you never go, this is an important work on the ecology and conservation of one of Europe’s greenest countries, with an importance far beyond its boundaries.