Birds of the Middle East

A second edition of this landmark field guide, with numerous new plates, and re-worked old ones from two of the three original artists. For anyone who has travelled in the Middle East, or eastern Mediterranean region this guide has been a mainstay for identifying the birds encountered and this new edition has been greatly updated. It includes new distribution information and incorporates many other recent findings since the publication of the original well over a decade ago. One of the bugbears of the old edition was the fact that only breeding and wintering distributions were shown on the maps, and as many species are seen on passage the new edition now shows the passage distribution, the down-side is that the maps are much smaller than previously as the complete species information is displayed next to the plates. If you are visiting the Middle East you can’t afford to be without this book!

Book reviewed by Su Gough