Britain's Birds by Hume, Still, Swash Harrop & Tipling Publisher - WILDGuides ISBN 978-0-691-15889-1 £19.95 (widely discounted) c600 species 3,200 photos 560 pages
As this is a blog about the birds of Cadiz province it may reasonably be asked whether a review of a book about Britain's birds is a suitable subject for discussion here. Rather surprisingly this book only omits about twenty-five species found in Spain but not in the UK (e.g sandgrouse, various raptors, Azure-winged Magpie, etc). Even those “Spanish/Mediterranean” birds recorded in Britain only as rarities (e.g. Little Bustard, Spanish Sparrow, etc) get surprisingly full treatment (for an example of this see the final photo at the end of this review). Hence for many groups (particularly perhaps seabirds, waders, ducks, skuas and gulls) this book remains a very valuable ID guide when in Iberia even if it has no information on occurrence or distribution in Spain. Well, that's the excuse over and done with, the real reason is that I love writing about good generously illustrated bird books!
Over the last few decades, an unwritten rule seems to have developed that the more 'serious' the field or identification guide, the greater the area it attempts to cover and the more likely it is to be illustrated by good quality artwork rather than photographs. So the announcement of a new photo-guide exclusively on British birds hardly raised expectations given the plethora of similar guides, generally of an indifferent quality, that have been published over the years. Yet both the name of the publisher, WildGuides, and the team involved hinted that something more revolutionary might be on the way. Yet I doubt that many will have anticipated just how revolutionary and cutting edge a book was about to be published. It should be noted that the resulting book is no field guide but rather a somewhat bulky small handbook (21.5 cm tall x 16cm wide x 3.5cms thick). Irritatingly, had it been just 2 cm narrower it would have just slipped into a 'standard' pocket of a Barbour-type jacket (although the top may have peeked out and, at just under 1200g, it would have strained the stitching). Accordingly, it's a book for a small rucksack or to be left in the glove-box.
Photo Index The thing that most struck me about the book when I flicked through it, apart from its bulk, is how superbly thought through and carefully designed it has been. The front book flap has a useful aide memoire for the maps and codes used in the text and the rear flap a good short index. Flicking past the commendably short introduction takes you to a six-page “photo-index” to the various types of birds that will be a boon to the less expert. Another huge advantage is that the increasingly less than functional taxonomic order has been abandoned for an intuitive order that is not only easier to negotiate but also makes a comparison with similar species more straight forward. Before any purists have an attack of the vapours, it should be noted that the bird list in the back (neatly also serving as a guide to protected status) is in taxonomic order. This is a sensible compromise that all field guides should follow.
Races of Iceland Gull & Rarer Gulls Once past those necessary, but less exciting, explanatory pages you arrive at the meat of the book; the species accounts. Birds are marshalled into thirty groups (e.g. Wildfowl, Seabirds, Waders, Aerial Feeders) each one of which has an instructive introduction. These vary from one to four pages (apart from the bustards which are reduced to a short paragraph) and outline vital factors such as ageing, moult and so on. All of the commoner 'core' species have at least a single full page illustrating and describing all the expected plumages and variations. Some highly variable species (e.g. Iceland Gull & Snow Bunting) or a group of similar birds (e.g. Redpoll) have two or three pages. Where flight identification is important (e.g. ducks & raptors) there are excellent comparative plates. Remarkably, the skuas are covered in no less than nine pages and an astonishing c60 images (c10 more images than in the Collins Bird Guide although the latter has a far more detailed text) - see below. All of these are masterly done. Less common species (e.g Barred Warbler) are generally allotted half a page or sometimes less (e.g. rare 'chats' and warblers are three or four to a page and American landbirds squeezed into six to a page).
Races of Wren One of the things that mark this guide out as something special is the comprehensive nature of the species depicted and the exhaustive number of races and plumage variations illustrated. I know of no other book that depicts all of the UK's races of Wren. Remarkably, it covers all UK and Irish species recorded up until March 2016. All plumages one is likely to see in the UK are covered (although adult male Pallid Harrier and juvenile Corn Bunting are missing). As indicated above this means species are depicted by an impressive number of images (few have less than four and many a dozen or so with gulls, terns, and raptors being particularly generously treated). A quick calculation suggested an average of c8.5 photos per species which is impressive particularly as a direct comparison with the artist-illustrated Collins Bird Guide (Svensson et al) showed a lower average (c7.5). Amongst photographic guides only Crossley's guides (see crossleybooks.com/) have a similarly generous number of photos. Another big plus is that the images are larger than you might expect (the main ones being more than twice the size of those found in most field guides). The overall quality of the photographs is high which is, perhaps, only what one should expect these days. What is most impressive, although it may not be so obvious, is the great technical achievement of seamlessly incorporating multiple images into a convincing single plate. Equally impressive is how similar species are shown in similar poses despite multiple images. Photos also seem to have been selected so that on every plate the light source is consistent, helping the sense of unity and conformity giving the impression that somehow all the images were taken at the same time! Sourcing and matching these must have been hugely time-consuming. Until the advent and increasing popularity of digital photography, it's doubtful that a book like this could have been produced. All this technical wizardry has produced one of the very few photographic guides that can bear comparison with one using good artwork (see sample plates below).
Marsh Warbler et al - Note the sensible use of a comparative table The descriptive text is very condensed, sometimes a little too telegrammatic, although it is helped by the judicious use of bold text, occasional use of coloured fonts and, where needed, annotations next to the photographic images. At times I felt that this brevity fell a little short and was less successful in painting a word picture' of the species than the descriptions in the Collins Bird Guide. However, any short comings were often handsomely made up for by additional comparative plates (e.g. Yellow-legged & Caspian Gull). This refreshingly flexible approach is also reflected by the frequent presentation of 'key features' on tricky identification groups in tabular form. Treatment of vocalisations can be a little sketchy at times (although more than adequate for the most part). However, Rob Hume deserves huge credit for going back to basics and describing all vocalisations afresh rather than depending on well worn and familiar renditions. Notes on habitat are even more limited. Rather surprisingly there isn't a diagram showing bird topography strategically placed inside the back cover or in the introduction. Instead, there are a number of 'feather maps' within the introductions to the various groups of birds. In some ways this makes a lot of sense but I think a generic version placed where it could easily be found would have been useful as it would have come readily to hand.
Although the colour reproduction of the BTO map in this photo is poor (pale blue/mauve being hard to see), you still can see that the map from the BTO Guide is more subtle and, since it shows populations in Yorkshire, East Kent and Dungeness, more accurate. That I have repeatedly compared this book to the all-conquering Collins Bird Guide is significant and that it comes through the comparison not only relatively unscathed but with it's status as a high-quality guide enhanced is remarkable. In this context, it's a huge disappointment to find such a technically brilliant book that has been so carefully designed and thought through has stumbled so badly when it comes to its maps. My local knowledge of Kent's birdlife alerted me to this problem and comparing the distribution maps to those in the recent BTO “Bird Atlas” or their recent Collins BTO Guide to British Birds (an otherwise inferior book) confirms it: too many maps have errors. The comparison with the BTO Guide is an interesting one. Both are new photographic guides which make similar claims to show all plumages and primarily aspire to be ID guides. The BTO guide though is in two volumes (common and rarer birds) which are individually eminently pocketable although I doubt anyone will take both into the field. The BTO book has over 30 pages of introduction, Britain's Birds, less than ten. The ID descriptions in the first are in 'proper' sentences without any highlighting of key features and are supplemented by rather fewer annotations on the plates. In contrast, the text in Britain's Birds reads more like a telegram but, thanks to careful use of highlighting, gets the point over much more effectively and is much better supported by annotations and, where needed, the use of tabulated information. Thanks to Britain's Birds greater size and bulk, it also has roughly twice as many images and of a larger size. Despite being one of the better photoguides, the BTO guide is very conventional and has not been so well or functionally designed, small size apart (note that birds are in taxonomic order). However, it is much superior in one important respect; the maps. Despite being significantly smaller than those in Britain's Birds, the maps in the BTO guide are more accurate and also more effective in showing not only the breeding/winter distribution but also relative frequency in those seasons (the photo here doesn't do it justice). In contrast, the maps in Britain's Birds are more generalised and, more importantly, too often simply wrong (check Marsh Harrier and Corn Bunting for example). In addition the BTO guide has a neat 'calendar wheel' showing seasonal abundance which the rival guide could usefully have employed (and arguably could include song/breeding periods with a little ingenuity). However, like most small maps those in neither guide cope well with showing small or isolated populations.
Despite the growing landslide of popular guides on birds, all claiming to be 'the last word', it's very unusual to find one that largely matches, let alone often exceeds, the promise of its publicity. Lars Jonsson's Birds of Europe was one such, the Collins Guide was another and Peter Hayman's unfairly neglected Birdwatcher's Pocket Guide to Britain and Europe a third but until now I would have struggled to think of a fourth candidate to rank alongside them. It may be a little ironic that a book clearly designed to be used in the field is arguably too large to be practical but the overall quality is so outstanding this hardly seems to matter. Despite minor caveats (asee also below), this book effortlessly slips into the same category. It raises the art of the photoguide to a new level. It is no mere regurgitation of familiar information or approaches but a fresh revolutionary look at how to present information on the identification of birds. Few books manage the difficult trick of being equally useful to the beginner (cf the photo index) and the more expert (cf treatment of scoters and subspecies) but this is certainly one. The biggest annoyance, though, is to be denied this level of utility and depth of information when travelling abroad. A sister guide shorn of the most extreme rarities to make room for 'European only' species would be a welcome addition to any bookshelf. Even so, no British birder should be without it and sensible birders across the Channel, including those in Spain, will want a copy too.
STOP PRESS - talking to the publisher at the UK Bird Fair it seems that, as hoped, a European version is 'in the pipeline' although no details are available. Unfortunately, it also seems that there are more factual mistakes in the book than just the maps. Sharper eyes than mine have noticed, for example, that Audouin's Gull juvenile (p139) is probably juv Yellow-legged Gull, that the head of a Juv. Little Ringed Plover (p182) is actually a Ringed Plover, the first winter "Common" Sandpiper is a Spotted, the first winter Richard's Pipit (p360) is a Tawny Pipit and the juvenile Serin (p485) is a juvenile Citril Finch. Some on social media claim about 50-60 wrongly captioned birds (mainly the wrong plumage/sex rather than the wrong species). There's even been talk that the publisher should recall the book but I think this a rather precious over-reaction which fails to recognise the book's many strengths. Yes, it's disappointing that any errors have slipped through but with 3,000+ photos this has to be seen in proportion and the book remains both highly functional and very useful. As the publisher has been made aware of these problems, new editions (inc. the promised European version) should be even better.
STOP PRESS - talking to the publisher at the UK Bird Fair it seems that, as hoped, a European version is 'in the pipeline' although no details are available. Unfortunately, it also seems that there are more factual mistakes in the book than just the maps. Sharper eyes than mine have noticed, for example, that Audouin's Gull juvenile (p139) is probably juv Yellow-legged Gull, that the head of a Juv. Little Ringed Plover (p182) is actually a Ringed Plover, the first winter "Common" Sandpiper is a Spotted, the first winter Richard's Pipit (p360) is a Tawny Pipit and the juvenile Serin (p485) is a juvenile Citril Finch. Some on social media claim about 50-60 wrongly captioned birds (mainly the wrong plumage/sex rather than the wrong species). There's even been talk that the publisher should recall the book but I think this a rather precious over-reaction which fails to recognise the book's many strengths. Yes, it's disappointing that any errors have slipped through but with 3,000+ photos this has to be seen in proportion and the book remains both highly functional and very useful. As the publisher has been made aware of these problems, new editions (inc. the promised European version) should be even better.
RSS Feed
