The Birds of Devon

At first glance The Birds of Devon has the look and feel of a quality publication, and indeed it does contain a lot of information. In appearance it is similar to other recent county avifaunas, and joins a growing library of these fantastic sources of reference. In this title, however, that information is quite difficult to access. If you want to dip into the book to find the breeding status of a particular species, you find yourself having to read through the whole account to find it. A simple breakdown of the account with relevant sections in bold would prevent this and make the book much more accessible.

Personally, I would have also liked to have seen more space given to the occurrence of some of the Devon additions to the British list: the Long-billed Murrelet gets four lines and the Eastern Phoebe gets just one; it would have been great to have read finders accounts and to share in the excitement of these enigmatic birds. Both are still the only British records and whilst this would have enlarged an already sizeable book, there are 6 blank pages at the back, so perhaps an opportunity missed?

Given the vast amount of information that this book contains I feel an opportunity has been missed to create a real tour de force for a county that is rich in wildlife and wildlife watchers, and we are left with a collection of dates and numbers. For anyone with an interest in the birds of Devon, however, all the information they need is there.

Book reviewed by Paul Stancliffe