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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Goshawk Summer: A New Forest Season Unlike Any Other

Author: James Aldred

Publisher: Elliot & Thompson, London

Published: 2021

Award-winning documentary film-maker James Aldred spent the spring and summer of 2020 filming Goshawks in the New Forest, his childhood home. This book, presented in an extended diary form, catalogues ...

Birdpedia: A Brief Compendium of Avian Lore

Author: Christopher W Leahy(Author) & Abby McBride(Illustrator)

Publisher: Princeton University Press, Princeton

Published: 2021

Birdpedia is an eclectic and entertaining read. It follows an A–Z format, taking the reader from ‘Abundance’ to ‘Zugenruhe’. Along the way, we learn about everything from ornithological pioneers and ...

Birds of Lincolnshire

Author: Colin Casey, John Clarkson, Phil Espin & Phil Hyde

Publisher: Lincolnshire Bird Club

Published: 2021

The last comprehensive review of Lincolnshire’s birds was completed more than three decades ago, so this book will undoubtably serve as a timely and eagerly awaited update. Produced on behalf of ...

Naturalized Parrots of the World

Author: Stephen Pruett-Jones (Ed.)

Publisher: Princeton University Press, Princeton & Oxford

Published: 2021

Parrots are among the most endangered birds globally, their populations threatened by habitat loss, trapping for the pet trade (both legal and illegal), and shooting, the latter predominantly centred ...

Vagrancy in Birds

Author: Alexander Lees & James Gilroy

Publisher: Helm, London

Published: 2021

Avian vagrancy is a phenomenon that has fascinated natural historians for centuries. From Victorian collectors willing to spend fortunes on a rare specimen, to today’s high-octane bird-chasing ...

Human, Nature

Author: Ian Carter

Publisher: Pelagic Publishing

Published: 2021

The judges of Bird Book of the Year 2021 enjoyed the straight-talking and balanced approach taken by the author in addressing issues that others may have skirted. Ian’s personal knowledge around the ...

Short-eared Owls

Author: Bryan Benn

Publisher: Bryan Benn

Published: 2021

This book is a remarkable achievement. It describes one man’s study of Short-eared Owls over 10 years across different parts of Britain. While the main strengths of the book are those personal ...

Feathers: An Identification Guide to the Feathers of Western European Birds

Author: Fraigneau. Cloé

Publisher: Helm, London

Published: 2021

The pattern and colouration of feathers provide valuable and often memorable clues to bird identification. Taken in isolation, however, feathers can be surprisingly hard to identify, particularly for ...

Man and Bird in the Palaeolithic of Western Europe

Author: Anne Eastham

Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd, Oxford

Published: 2021

This book attempts to straddle the two disciplines of ornithology and archaeology, by fusing the author’s stated passion for birds with their obvious deep knowledge of early hunter-gatherer ...
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