Birds of Europe
text by Peter J.Grant and Lars Svensson,
illustrations by Dan Zetterstrom and Killian Mullarney,
Princeton Press, 1999
A while back I attempted to compile a list of book reviews describing my top ten favorite guides
on my birding blog. I failed this milk-run of a mission and tossed up only 8 such reviews, the last
two have remained unwritten. I've decided to temporarily skip #2 (The Shorebird Guide by
Michael O'Brien, Richard Crossley, and Kevin Karlson) and cut right to the last, and in my
opinion, best guide. Enjoy:
Have you ever ID'd a scoter by the way it dives? Or a Red-throated Loon by how it's neck moves
in flight? Or distinguished the offspring of a Pochard male and a Tufted Duck female from the
young of a Pochard female and a Tufted Duck male? No? Well that's probably because you
haven't read this guide.
This Princeton Press field guide is the ultimate bird guide: 400 sturdy pages of birding
knowledge. Complete with amazing illustrations, 4-color range maps and comparatively long
species texts, it covers everything from the Red-throated Loon to the Indian Silverbill. What
other book fits illustrations of 20 Common Buzzards, 18 Honey Buzzards and 1 Marsh Harrier
into one average sized page while still being completely visible? On top of the amazing quantity
of the illustrations each picture is surrounded by field identification notes.
Every description gives size, habitat, scientific name, the scarcity of the species in England,
identification details and voice. The book include 848 species, 23 of which are introduced and
103 of which are vagrants. Indeed every species recorded in Europe before 1999 is covered.
Nearly every species has a illustration of a certain behavior, gives a side-by-side comparison
with another similar species, or merely shows a habitat preference. Whatever the case, in the way
of illustrations, this book is not lacking!
One feature I particularly like are the family introductions. Most of these are just a paragraph
long but a few, like the intro for the gulls, are excessively long (but not in a bad way). The gull
introduction contains 7 paragraphs on IDing gulls, their food preferences, their molt cycle and
general observation tips. Along with these 7 paragraphs 30 individual gulls of numerous different
species are illustrated.
The back of the book has a partially illustrated chapter on vagrants, a list of accidentals (rarer
then vagrants), and partially illustrated chapter on introduced breeders.
In short I have nothing wrong to say about this book. It really is the perfect field guide. All field
guides at least attempt to set themselves at the top, but so far all but this one have succeeded in
nothing more then failing when compared with this pinnacle of birding knowhow.
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