Collins Field Guide: Birds of North America and Greenland

The North American field guide market is as full of choice as we are used to in northern Europe and I’m not quite sure what this book is trying to achieve. It is a small, hard-covered volume, so would be ideal for packing into luggage for travellers. As it covers over 900 species, including vagrants to the US, Canada and Greenland, it could appeal to a keen birder, but would potentially confuse or overwhelm a back-yard birder or beginner. For the serious birder, however, there are problems:

In such a compact book, by necessity, there are compromises. Each species is illustrated with an (often single) small picture. Almost every bird is presented facing left in ‘bird map’ fashion, reminiscent of older style guides. Although the illustrations are of a high quality, they fail to provide the range of plumages and aesthetic appeal that we have come to expect from other available guides. As an example, on one of the hummingbird pages – a notoriously difficult group to identify – we are faced with 23 very similar looking birds, with males and females of most being shown. All are in identical pose and there is little to help us differentiate between them (confused further by the fact the numbering runs ...5, 6, 4, 8, 9, 7...). The distribution maps are tiny, each being just 14mm square, and placed far too close to the spine. If you are short of space for a trip to North America, then this book may be for you, but there are many other books out there which may be much better suited.

Book reviewed by Su Gough