Bird Habitats in Ireland

Two outstanding editors; 25 authors; over 300 pages; over 1,000 references; 18 chapters dealing with all the bird habitats in Ireland; hundreds of high-quality photographs: this is a truly remarkable book. Never has a book of this nature been attempted for the island of Ireland. A generation ago it could never have been envisaged that such a book could be written; there were simply not the birdwatchers, nor the ornithologists, nor the government scientists in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland; nor the fieldworkers and conservationists in BirdWatch Ireland or RSPB Northern Ireland, to provide the wealth of information that has gone into the production of this book. It’s remarkable how things have changed in Ireland. This book represents a major landmark in our understanding of bird habitats in Ireland. There are descriptions of habitats and their associated bird communities, descriptions of habitat management, descriptions of climate change and the effect upon bird populations, as well as descriptions of the effect of human impacts upon bird populations. There is no doubt – the book is comprehensive and rigorous in its approach and yet it is highly readable. This is an important book for bird conservation not only in Ireland but in Britain as well.

Book reviewed by Julian Greenwood