Book reviews

Book reviews

Read reviews of the books we hold in the Chris Mead Library, written by our in-house experts. A selection of book reviews also features in our members’ magazine, BTO News.

Featured review

All the Birds of the World

Lynx have had a long-term project to produce an exhaustive guide to the birds of the world. It started out with the 17 volumes of the Handbook of the Birds of the World (1992–2013) which has family and species accounts for all birds. This was followed by the two volumes of the Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World (2014–2016). They have now published the third and final stage of this avian odyssey with this current book.

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All the Birds of the World

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RSPB How to Photograph Garden Birds

Author: Mark Carwardine

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, London

Published: 2023

During my 20 years of birding, I have only modestly dabbled in bird photography (with the same camera from the 2000s I’ve had since school), so when beginning to read this new RSPB book by Mark ...

The Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife: Britain and Ireland between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution

Author: Lee Raye

Publisher: Pelagic Publishing, London

Published: 2023

As the title suggests, this book is presented as an atlas of the wildlife on our ‘Atlantic Archipelago’ from roughly 1519 to 1772. The term ‘wildlife’ covers a range of vertebrate species (from ...

The Painted Stork: Exploring Ecology and Conservation in India

Author: Abdul Jamil Urfi

Publisher: Pelagic Publishing, London

Published: 2024

Abdul Jamil Urfi’s latest work on his beloved Painted Storks takes us to India and provides an accessible but richly informative account of the lives of these globally Near Threatened birds. Urfi has ...

The Vanishing Mew Gull: A Guide to the Bird Names of the Western Palaearctic

Author: Ray Reedman

Publisher: Pelagic Publishing, London

Published: 2024

At first glance, this book might appear to be another volume exploring the declines of bird species, as a result of Anthropocene activity. But reading beyond the title, it soon becomes clear that the ...

Field Guide to the Birds of Dominican Republic and Haiti

Author: Steven Latta, , Chris Rimmer , Kent McFarland & Dana Gardner (principal illustrator)

Publisher: Princeton University Press, Princeton

Published: 2022

The island of Hispaniola, comprised of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, is among the Caribbean’s most exciting birding destinations. With an excess of 300 species recorded, the island is home to an ...

Haunted by the last tide: The SWLA in the Danish Wadden Sea

Author: Colin Williams (text) & Marco Brodde (editor)

Publisher: Society of Wildlife Artists, London

Published: 2023

The result of two two-week trips by 19 artists, all members of the Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA), this beautiful book documents the birds and landscapes of Denmark’s Waden Sea National Park. ...

Be a Birder: The Joy of Birdwatching and How to Get Started

Author: Hamza Yassin

Publisher: Gaia Books

Published: 2023

Hamza Yassin is well-known for his work as a wildlife cameraman and presenter. He has worked on a whole host of television programmes, including David Attenborough’s Wild Isles, and has presented his ...

The Norfolk Plover: A Study of the Stone-curlew

Author: Chris Knights

Publisher: Wild Breckland Books

Published: 2023

Back in 2002, one of my first jobs in conservation was being part of a four-person RSPB team that monitored and protected the nests of Stone-curlews in the Breckland area of Norfolk, and my love of ...

Fergus The Silent

Author: Michael McCarthy

Publisher: YouCaxton Publications

Published: 2021

Michael McCarthy is perhaps best known for his environmental journalism and nature writing. His skills were recognised by BTO back in 2011, when he was awarded the annual Dilys Breese Medal for ...
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