Owls of the world: a photographic guide

In the familiar format of Helm monographs, this book tackles the huge owl tribe. Very much an ID monograph the majority of this book is taken up with species accounts, each highly illustrated, with a modest description and map. Brief but well-illustrated preliminary chapters cover owl biology, behaviour and conservation.

Owl taxonomy is ever-changing and, added to this, is the fact that new species of owl are being discovered at a surprisingly high rate of knots. 249 separate species are covered in this book, with several new additions and a couple more removed as they are now considered extinct.  

The photos are of un-erring high quality, even where few photos exist, but this is never going to be used as a field-guide due to its size, weight and world-wide coverage but, as a source of reference, this has a place on the shelves of anyone with a keen interest in the world's owls.