Collins Bird Guide: The Most Complete Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe Paperback – 4 Mar. 2010

When I started birdwatching three decades ago, a friend who had been into birds for as long as he could remember recommended the Shell Guide. Since then I've been doing the same to anyone who asked me, although unfortunately the book hasn't been published for many years. When a neighbour asked, I told her I'd keep an eye out, but warned her off books which combined Europe with the UK, as they tended to have a very confused focus, quite apart from being so crammed that the pictures tend to the useless end of the scale.Then I found this.Clear pictures, clear text, explanations and illustrations of geographic and seasonal variations in plumage, practical tips for the field. It's as close to the North American Sibley guides as I could have hoped. I doubt it will replace my now twice-rebound Shell guide in the UK, but at last I have a decent book for European trips. It even has an illustration of Lesser Kestrels circling the Giralda in Seville, the best place (in my book) to get guaranteed sightings of the bird in high summer.Not that it's perfect. The size of the maps is unavoidable given the massive scope needing to be balanced with practical issues around weight and size, and while they're small they're clear enough if you have a reasonable idea of your location. I'm not in agreement over choice of bird names. In North America I'm accustomed to Divers' being called Loons (the Canadians even have a coin called a Loonie), but I've never heard a UK-based birder use the term. Similarly labelling Bewick's Swans as Tundra Swans looks capricious, maybe even conceited, to say the least. It's not a label I've seen at Welney, where I usually go to see my wild swans. And in contrast to my Shell guide, this one doesn't stay open on the shelf, whatever it's made of, in front of you, which is inconvenient when you're trying to match the LBJ (Little Brown Job) in your binoculars with a picture in a book. Next time I'm in a suitable shop I'm going to experiment with the hardcover version to see if that's where I went wrong.But you know what? When I found it I bought two copies. One for my neighbour, and one for myself.

The long awaited second edition of this excellent field guide is finally here. Improving on the world's best bird field guide is almost certainly a task that will disappoint a few. However the authors and illustrators are to be commended for their achievement. Despite an addition of almost fifty pages, compared to the first edition, this is still a very field-worthy book. The text, range maps, and many illustrations have been throughly revised and updated. Particularly noteworthy are the many new owl illustrations, and the page of "Atlantic" pigeons. Many "new" species have been added due to splits from previous subspecies. Thus, many island races from the Canary Islands are now full species. Some taxonomic groups got a particular revision, such as the wheatears and the "Herring Gull complex". The treatment of the latter has been expanded from less than a double page to three full spreads. With Caspian Gull being fully illustrated in various plumages, for example. The taxonomic sequence got some changes in the first parts of the book, with geese and ducks now at the front. The same confusing fashion as in field guides of North America and many other areas of the world. There is actually no need for a field guide to follow the latest taxonomic insights. Rather, there needs to be a sequence that allows for quickly finding a group of birds. And that would be best served if the basic sequence were kept constant.Unfortunately, non-native species got a rather worse coverage than in the first edition. Some were relegated to the back of the book such as the locally well established Wood Duck and Mandarin Duck. And even for the European native Ruddy Shelduck, the range presumably due to human releases is not shown on the map. Personally, I consider such omissions a lack of recognizing reality. The same problems, unfortunately, are found in such leading works as the Handbook of the Birds of the World, and likewise for the mammal equivalent.A welcome change in the range maps is the use of more detailed regional maps for very localised species. Despite the time span of about ten years since the first edition, and the repeated postponement in the publication of this edition for about two years, it seems that there must have been a certain rush at the end. Thus, there are relatively many typos or other minor oversights. No big thing, but somewhat of a bother nevertheless. Hopefully, a large part will be corrected in a later printing.Despite the various points I have criticized here, the book fully merits its five stars. It is just SO good! However, if you already own the first edition, you might want to wait for a later printing that should not be that far in the future.