Birds of Spain - Eduardo de Juana & Juan M Varela (Translated Ernest Garcia)Pub: Lynx Feb. 2017 567 species (inc. 173 accidentals covered in less detail)300+ maps Almost 1,000 illustrations ISBN 13: 978-84-16728-02-220 x 12 cm 258 pp 25€
Despite my atrocious Spanish, I've been recommending “Aves de Espaňa” by Eduardo de Juana and Juan M Varela ever since I saw a copy and mistook the latter's artwork as some of Lars Jonsson's early work. They have the same fluid style and an uncanny knack of breathing life into their images. I couldn't understand much of the text but the maps, like the illustrations, were multilingual. After a little perseverance, I found that even I could even decipher the text sufficiently well to grasp the essential details of population and passage periods if not identification details. I've been hoping for an English version for years and here it is! This is a version of the recently published Spanish 3rd edition. Translators rarely receive the praise that they deserve but this volume was in the safe hands of Ernest Garcia, the well-known expert on Iberia's birds, who has done a first rate job. (Note that in this review I have compared this editions largely with the original 2000 edition, not the 2nd edition).
As the introduction tells us (and we hopeless Anglophones can now understand) the aim was to produce a book small enough to be “practical for use in the field” and yet of “impressive quality, content and conservation potential”. It's testament to how far their aims have been achieved that over 40,000 copies of the original Spanish book have been sold and the guide has gone through several editions. The main section describes and illustrates just under 400 species in 208 pages whilst 173 vagrants (57 of which are illustrated) are listed (but not described) in an appendix. It follows the now conventional 'text-opposite-plates' layout. Each double page spread covers 3-4 species (occasionally 5) and for relevant species includes a refreshingly large distribution map. Note that it covers peninsular Spain, the Balearics and, less obviously, the Canaries.
As noted above the illustrations are of a very high quality. In this (like the third Spanish edition) new illustrations have been provided for a number of species (inc. male Capercaillie, juv Night Heron, winter Kentish Plover, Stonecurlew, Pectoral Sandpiper, Common Buttonquail, Barn, Little, Short-eared and Eagle Owls, Bee-eater, Roller, Great-reed Warbler, Chiffchaff, Penduline Tit, Dipper, Blackbird, Blue Rockthrush and Snowfinch). There are also new illustrations for Cory's and Scopoli's Shearwaters (the latter newly included and treated as a full species). I find the illustrations aesthetically very pleasing with only the painting of Marsh Tit falling below par. One of my few reservations concerns the illustration of spring male Pied Flycatcher which shows a bird with a large white patch at the base of the primaries (not labelled as such but typical of the local race iberiae) but extensive white outer tail feathers more resembling the nominate form hypoleuca of northern Europe. A comparison I carried out by looking at twenty 'core species' found an average of 3.3 illustrations per species in this guide which was less than half of those found showing the same species in the popular Collins Guide (8). As a result, although there are good comparison plates for eagles, skuas and gulls, the book still has fewer illustrations of females, juveniles, birds in flight, etc. than many may be used to (for example only breeding Cattle Egret with warm buff plumes is illustrated inviting confusion, unless the text is consulted, between Little Egret and Cattle Egret when in winter plumage). However, to a large degree, this is compensated by the fact that the illustrations are significantly larger and the plates much less cluttered. This makes it particularly helpful for tyro birdwatchers since it's less confusing.
Several rare, introduced or essentially North African species have been 'promoted' from the appendix in the main text (inc. Bald Ibis, Western Reef Heron, Egyptian Goose, Mandarin, Lesser Flamingo, Long-legged Buzzard and Red-billed Leiothrix). Perhaps surprisingly neither Ruppell's Vulture nor Pallid Harrier, both increasingly reported, have been fully covered. Interestingly, Ruddy Duck has been banished altogether and the illustration of Barbary Falcon (now treated as a subspecies of Peregrine has gone AWOL). The inclusion of so many introduced species - Mandarin, Egyptian Goose, Red-billed Leiothrix, Ring-necked Parakeet, Monk Parakeet, Common Waxbill & Red Avadavat – is very welcome. However, the absence of species (e.g. Black-headed Weaver, Yellow-crowned Bishop and several parakeet species) with growing populations in Spain, is a little surprising.
Several rare, introduced or essentially North African species have been 'promoted' from the appendix in the main text (inc. Bald Ibis, Western Reef Heron, Egyptian Goose, Mandarin, Lesser Flamingo, Long-legged Buzzard and Red-billed Leiothrix). Perhaps surprisingly neither Ruppell's Vulture nor Pallid Harrier, both increasingly reported, have been fully covered. Interestingly, Ruddy Duck has been banished altogether and the illustration of Barbary Falcon (now treated as a subspecies of Peregrine has gone AWOL). The inclusion of so many introduced species - Mandarin, Egyptian Goose, Red-billed Leiothrix, Ring-necked Parakeet, Monk Parakeet, Common Waxbill & Red Avadavat – is very welcome. However, the absence of species (e.g. Black-headed Weaver, Yellow-crowned Bishop and several parakeet species) with growing populations in Spain, is a little surprising.
Now that I can read it without constant recourse to a dictionary and much head scratching, the excellence of the text is clear. The descriptive notes are clear and concise (although the judicious use of 'bold' for critical points would have made them still better). The key identification pointers are given so that, given a good view, all but the most fiendishly difficult identification problems should be resolvable. The advantage of having a skilled birdwatcher as the translator is shown by the modification of the transcriptions of many calls and songs for an Anglophone, rather than Hispanophone, readership. Details of status and population have been taken from two recent Spanish bird atlases. These too have been used to create the excellent four colour maps (resident = green, breeding = yellow, common in winter = dark blue and scarce in winter = pale blue). Usefully the maps show the distribution of birds in Portugal and adjacent parts of France and North Africa too. Naturally, the maps are far larger, more accurate and more detailed than maps in field guides which cover a much larger area. My only caveat is that indicating provincial boundaries would have made it easier to understand where the birds are found. Conservation status is also given.
The most contentious, change has been to order the birds according to the most recent taxonomy which is based on DNA research. As a result of this, many original illustrations have been shifted round and often re-sized. Frequently they're now a little smaller, but this has the advantage of making some plates feel less cluttered. If covering wildfowl second, not first, after gamebirds were the only change then the novel arrangement wouldn't be too bad. Unfortunately, in my view many changes actively militate against the book's functionality as a field guide. Although now known to be scientifically inaccurate, the old taxonomy was based, in part, on physical differences so that similar species tended to be grouped together. DNA takes no account of this so Grebes are now 20 pages adrift from Divers. Nightjars, swifts and cuckoos now find a home just after flamingos but before crakes. Bizarrely, Hoopoes, Bee-eaters, Roller, Kingfisher and woodpeckers intrude themselves between the larger birds of prey and falcons. Odder still, Hippolais and “wetland warblers” are divided from the 'bush' and 'leaf' warblers by swallows and martins. Meanwhile, Long-tailed Tit is now hiding amongst the warblers! For anyone used to the traditional species order, this is extremely, and unnecessarily, confusing. The obvious remedy is to have a quick look in the index but this is where the guide really falls down badly since it has what is probably the worst index I've ever seen in a bird book. Not sure where to find a Golden Oriole in the new taxonomic order? Well, you won't find it under “O” for oriole as you might expect nor even under “G” for golden which is the other obvious option. No, it's under “E” for “Eurasian”! Hence no bird groups (such as gulls, terns, warblers, etc.) are indexed together and species are dotted across the index depending on whether they're 'Common', 'European', 'Eurasian' etc. Together with the unfamiliar order, this makes the book far harder to use than it ought to be. It's high time bird guides abandoned a rigorous 'scientific order' as it no longer reflects our intuitive grasp of bird groups. An Anglo-American team has led the way in using a 'field friendly' order (see https://www.aba.org/birding/v41n6p44.pdf) and the widely acclaimed Wildguides 'Britain's Birds' in the UK has followed suit (although this book also lists birds in taxonomic order in an appendix). My penultimate observation is one of surprise that Lynx didn't incorporate status information from their “Aves de Portugal” (which uses exactly the same illustrations) to make a single volume English language “Birds of Iberia” which surely would have been more economic and enjoyed larger potential sales.
I always used to recommended that British visitors to Spain should buy a copy of the “Aves de Espaňa” even if their Spanish was, like mine, very limited so, despite my minor caveats, I have no hesitation in recommending this English language version. It is a convenient and reasonably priced source of information, in English, that can only be found in a far more expensive reference book - “The Birds of the Iberian Peninsula” (also by Eduardo de Juana and the translator here Ernest Garcia). Enthusiasts, of course, will want both one for the bookshelf and one for the field. Although aimed at a novice or 'intermediate' birdwatcher, this is a superb little guide crammed with useful information which any Anglophone visitor to or resident in Spain would be foolish not to have with them. Very highly recommended
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