As with the previous title this book would be useful as a guide to learning woodland bird songs and calls, and covers an extensive range of species but, once again, it contains many species never found in Britain and Ireland (and not all of them are identified as such in the book). This could confuse more novice birdwatchers, who could well be attracted to the approach of this book. In that case, with the inclusion of such species as White-backed Woodpecker, Hazel Hen and Rustic Bunting, perhaps this could be a fantastic resource for more experienced woodland birders to brush up on their European bird songs and calls. The fact that certain key European woodland species are missing suggests otherwise, such as Short-toed Treecreeper which is, ironically, most easily separated from the very similar Treecreeper by song!

At first glance, an elegant little book to help you get the hang of wetland bird sounds – a small book, with helpful descriptions and an accompanying CD. However, (and I feel this is a big consideration) this book is meant to help people unfamiliar with wetland birds learn the calls – these are likely to be less experienced birders, so why include the extensive range of European species that will be rare, or even absent, in the UK and Ireland? This will prove extremely confusing. Learning the difference between Reed and Sedge Warbler is difficult enough, without muddying the water (excuse the pun!) with species such as Moustached, Savi’s, Marsh and Great Reed Warblers?

The birds of the Middle East hold a particular attraction to many UK birders, with familiar species cheek-by-jowl with others that occur only as vagrants to our shores. One of the easiest countries to get to is the UAE, with holiday destinations in Abu Dhabi and, particularly, Dubai making the Emirates relatively cheap and easy destinations. The definitive guide to the ‘Birds of the Middle East’ is, of course, the book by the same title by Porter and Aspinall, but this covers a vast area and includes many species not encountered in the UAE. This new Helm guide is based on that larger volume, with illustrations from the original but with the text re-written to reflect the status in UAE. It is the first and only complete field guide specific to the UAE and is an essential book for anyone travelling to this fantastic country.