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 (2014-16). 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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Far From Land

Author: Michael Brooke & Bruce Pearson

Publisher: Princeton University Press, Woodstock

Published: 2018

Michael Brooke’s Far From Land; the Mysterious Lives of Seabirds takes the reader on a magical tour of every ocean and some of the remotest locations on the planet through the lives of seabirds. ...

Gulls of the World: a photographic guide

Author: Klaus Malling Olsen

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Published: 2018

This book was originally reviewed by Brian Small on behalf of British Birds. The review can be read on the BB website: https://britishbirds.co.uk/article/gulls-of-the-world-a-photographic-guide/ Is ...

Gulls Simplified: A Comparative Approach to Identification

Author: Pete Dunne & Kevin T Karlson

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2018

This book aims to look at shape and structure, before dwelling on finer plumage characteristics, an approach you might already use on raptors. It starts ‘Gulls? No waaaayyeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...

The Cuckoo: the Uninvited Guest

Author: Oldřich Mikulica, Tomáš Grim, Karl Schulze-Hage & Bård Gunnar Stokke

Publisher: Wild Nature Press, Plymouth

Published: 2017

The familiar call of the male Cuckoo echoing across reed beds and moorland is widely recognised throughout Europe as a harbinger of spring; yet few have witnessed the intimate details of the life of ...

Curlew Calling: an Anthology of Poetry, Nature Writing and Images in Celebration of Curlew

Author: Karen Lloyd

Publisher: Numenius Press

Published: 2017

Mark Cocker points out in his foreword to this thought-provoking anthology the significance of biodiversity loss for our cultural heritage. Birds in particular have long been embodied in the arts; ...

Australian Bird Guide

Author: Peter Menkhorst, Danny Rogers, Rohan Clarke, Jeff Davies, Peter Marsack & Kim Franklin

Publisher: Christopher Helm, London

Published: 2017

I was fortunate recently to visit Australia with my family. When a Brisbane-based friend heard we were coming over he advised me to wait before buying a new field guide, as this one was due to be ...

Farming and Birds

Author: Ian Newton

Publisher: William Collins, London

Published: 2017

Land-use in rural Britain has experienced many changes over the centuries but since 1950 it has undergone an astonishingly rapid and virtually universal transformation. The management of arable crops ...

Flight Lines: Tracking the wonders of bird migration

Author: Mike Toms

Publisher: British Trust for Ornithology

Published: 2017

This book, a joint project between BTO and the Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA), explores Afro-Palaearctic migration in a unique and engaging way. Compiling BTO data and using a series of artworks ...

Rare and Scarce Birds of Cheshire & Wirral

Author: Allan Conlin & Eddie Williams

Publisher: Privately published

Published: 2017

Having grown up on the Wirral peninsula and begun my birding career there I was excited to lay my hands on this new book. It begins with four fascinating short chapters. The first provides an overview ...
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