As for reprints check out ADVANCED BIRD ID HANDBOOK Nils Van Duivendihk, now its a new edition of the Advanced bird id guide?
This new edition is bigger and has a check list in it, I cannot help but think the book world is taking the mick! out of us,I am sure the plans for the second book must have been going on while the first was been printed?
Well, you keep falling for it, Paul
Don't think I'll be going for Herr Diving-Duck's book - it hasn't got any pictures, has it!
Nice choice, with the progress in digital reprints and print on demand, the New Naturalist collection has somewhat lost its value:evilly:
As for reprints check out ADVANCED BIRD ID HANDBOOK Nils Van Duivendihk, now its a new edition of the Advanced bird id guide?
This new edition is bigger and has a check list in it, I cannot help but think the book world is taking the mick! out of us,I am sure the plans for the second book must have been going on while the first was been printed?
However £17.49 (amazon) so will use by refund for that!
Check out, Kaufman's Field Guide to Advanced Birding an American book, but has some excellent articles, ie An Integrated approach to field identification, principles and pitfalls of field identification, Techniques and Resources for learning Bird identification.
Overall its an excellent guide for a beginner as well, however you do have to make amendments for the fact that all the birds are American ones.
Nice identification article on Marsh and Willow tits, and mention of Ian in the Dusky Thrush report.
Now on further reading on this topic of Willow/ Marsh Tit and I quote from the article...... given such a collapse in our long-cherished list of features,one might be tempted to admit defeat but, fortunately,Broughton's paper contains some more reliable characters though these will be new to many observers......
Certain counties are now asking for a written rarity record on Willow Tit, so I for certain will be taking notes on my next visit to Pennington or Carrington moss, just to be positive, we all think we have seen Willow but how certain are we?
I am positive I saw a Marsh tit at Shell Nature reserve a few years back, and in the hast to get a camera, missed a chance to take proper notes, lesson learnt.
Have fun take notes be certain,
Keep Birding.
-- Edited by Paul Heaton on Tuesday 15th of February 2011 07:08:53 AM
Not a new book this, (though it is for me) but a 2005 reprint of Steven Hilty's 1994 book. Hilty is acclaimed primarily as co - author of the groundbreaking fieldguide to "Birds of Columbia" based on his years of painstaking fieldwork and observation there, and I have seldom been as enthralled as this with any bird book.
It covers behaviour, breeding, feeding, flocking, diversity and evolution, mainly of the birds of the neotropical rainforests; (arguably the greatest avifauna of the planet), and affords wonderful and instructive insights into basically how everything is as it is.
-In paperback and lent to me by a friend, so not sure how much it costs, (but probably buttons from Amazon); I wish I'd come across it years ago!
Cheers, Mike P
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Challenges are inevitable, but failure is optional.
It is always interesting to hear what other people read, recently whilst having tea and a good old chat, a birder told me the new Reed and Bush Warblers book was the perfect book to read with a cup of tea, Now I prefer with my cup of tea tomes such as Rare Birds Russell Slack Vol 1 First for Britain and Ireland 1600-199 Birds new to Britain 1980-2004
Advanced Bird ID Guide arrived today and still £4.99 on Amazon. There was a bit of a wait while they restocked. So now I need never get a Mystery Bird wrong again
Not a bird book but a great nature read I highly recommend which I finished this damp Saturday:
Patrick Barkham 'The Butterfly Isles: A summer spent in search of our Emperors and Admirals'
It is not often I lend my new books out, but Reed and Bush Warblers is such a massive tome, I had to make room slowly on my shelfs, so the loan to Ian was easy ( he Made me lend it to him)
I now have it back and it graces the 200 Club cabinet, Ians excellent review makes the costly price a tad easier to live with.
And perhaps we all forget that this excellent website comes out of Ians own pocket, we have an website that is priceless to GM Birders full of information photographs reviews and loads of madness.
Nice to see birders getting excited about books, however lets put it into the right context, this is a collection of all the salient points, that Mr Duivendijk has noted, therefore taking your own notes in the field and comparing them later could be the best way to use this info.
Collins bird guide in paperback is an excellent book to take in the field, and you can pencil in your own points. Then compare them later and see how you did.
Thanks for the "Advanced Bird ID Guide"review Ian and stimulating the interest- mine came this morning still £4.99 from Amazon. I was going to post the details as I hadn't seen this post but others thinking along the same lines! Well worth the money! I need to improve my ID skills and this guy has brought an awful lot of info together in one place-plenty of photos in other books. I'll have to do the mystery bird comp now! Steve
Yep, bought also, i like the new collins but it is not as detailed on some species as i would like, £4.99 with free delivery is a bargain, thanks for the heads up
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Did you see it? It was small and brown and flew that way.........................
I got myself the "Advanced Bird ID Guide" (Duivendijk) for Xmas ... Also the book is only £5 currently on Amazon - bargain !
Thanks for this tip-off Nick,
I ordered a copy as soon as I read your post and it arrived today. I put it to use straight away to check out the bullet points against an image of the putative Slaty-backed Gull in Essex. Everything seems to fit apart perhaps from longish primary projection beyond tail. But must exercise caution when assessing only 1 photograph.
This 304 page book is an absolute steal at £4.99 with free postage. (See Ian's in depth review on the main website)
Cheers, John
-- Edited by John Rayner on Friday 14th of January 2011 07:13:42 PM
I got myself the "Advanced Bird ID Guide" (Duivendijk) for Xmas (I find its always preferable to choose your own gifts !!!)
My Dads had it for a couple of months and each time I've visited I've found myself thumbing through it, at the start I thought it was flawed without any visual aids to support the text but then realized it is a great book to have alongside other books to fully describe the plumage nuances.
I also got it to try and aid my efforts on Mr Mc's damn Mystery Bird competition but I think it will probably take more than that !! If I could afford a new computer monitor I'd probably give myself a better chance. Hoopoe's crest - I can't differentiate it from the damn grass !!
Also the book is only £5 currently on Amazon - bargain !
Was checking on some books online today and noticed a new publication date for the 'Western Palearctic Photo Guide'. It now says that it will be published in Oct 2011, so they really must be struggling with photos for some of those tricky species and plumages. Shame, as was looking forward to that one for the cold and dark winter evenings.
On a different matter, those interested in books should get themselves to the North West Birdfair this weekend at Martin Mere though, as it is a great chance to flick through some of those titles that are on your hitlist and if you buy multiple books from any of the stalls you can always manage to get some sort of discount .
Happy reading .
Sean Sweeney wrote:
Pre-ordered my copies of both books a few weeks back. Really looking forward to the Western Palearctic Photo guide, but noted recently they are still searching for pictures of lots of species/sub-species and different ages/sexes of birds etc.
The Advanced ID guide is a purely text book, so I suspect the reduction in artist or photo fees explains the very reasonable price, and also suspect that most people won't be too interested in it as there will be no pictures!?!?
The prices you have quoted are for pre-orders too, as the RRP for them is £75 and £15 respectively, so get in there early for the good prices.....................
Paul Heaton wrote:
Two new books due out soon,
Birds of the Western Paleartic photo guide Hadoram Shirihai Lars Sevensson. £56.
Advanced bird guide, ID of every plumage of every bird on the Western Paleartic Nils Van Duivendijk £10.50.
It's a shame that I'll gladly pay £65 for it yet I'll be able to pay considerably less for it further down the line. However, I have several unanswered acrocephalus issues though and I'm hoping the sheer volume of research within the book will help towards answering those questions. Unfortunately I really can't afford to keep going to locations abroad in order to answer them for myself
Okay first impression was yes its good, now each to their own, but I think this book is a little cracker, basically it is full of the main id features of every species in the western paleartic,
It reminds me of a book in the possession of one of our top birders in GM,his copy of collins was battered and full of notes, id points articles on difficult species, it was and properly still is his pride and joy, however self made, he new how it worked.
This book is as it says the ultimate portable reference book, I know some birders will say you should not take book out with you,but armed with this and a Collins mistakes should not happen in the field.
Nice book one to take with you and see if its right, I am sure someone will point out a major error, but there is always someone better than you out there.
Just took delivery of Advanced Bird id Guide by Nils Van Duivendijk, first impression is hard to judge, bit like collins with no pics, will report later.
Pre-ordered my copies of both books a few weeks back. Really looking forward to the Western Palearctic Photo guide, but noted recently they are still searching for pictures of lots of species/sub-species and different ages/sexes of birds etc.
The Advanced ID guide is a purely text book, so I suspect the reduction in artist or photo fees explains the very reasonable price, and also suspect that most people won't be too interested in it as there will be no pictures!?!?
The prices you have quoted are for pre-orders too, as the RRP for them is £75 and £15 respectively, so get in there early for the good prices.....................
Paul Heaton wrote:
Two new books due out soon,
Birds of the Western Paleartic photo guide Hadoram Shirihai Lars Sevensson. £56.
Advanced bird guide, ID of every plumage of every bird on the Western Paleartic Nils Van Duivendijk £10.50.
Bought this today from the works in Stockport complete british birds by Paul Sterry (Collins photographic guides) ISBN9780007814855 another one for the my ever growing collection not a bad book they had about 7 copies left £4.99 not sure what year this was released.
-- Edited by Simon Gregory on Friday 11th of June 2010 10:40:05 PM
-- Edited by Simon Gregory on Friday 11th of June 2010 11:02:01 PM
It appears the Topography page missing of the New Collins bible was just a mistake, its in the paperback, and will be in the next reprints, to be honest I just photo-copied the old one and stuck it in, (yes Ian I know I should know it all by now, but I sometimes forget)
Having recently bought the Collins Guide 2nd Edition (Birds of Britain and Europe) I have noticed a few online retailers out there are advertising a 2nd Collins Edition but Birds of Britain and Ireland.
Is this book actually available as a seperate edition or did the publishers change their minds and issue Britain and Europe instead of just Britain and Ireland????
Hi Phil glad my slightly dodgy info was of some use , hmmm..... I seem to have got the price wrong , and the shops R.S.McColl now, not Forbouy's !!! doh!! Time to book Specsavers appointment ...
Forbouy's on Castle St. in Edgeley,Stockport ,had about 4 copies of "The Complete Guide to Birds of Britain and Europe"....a BTO book,edited by Paul Sterry ....A lovely hardback book , price marked at just £5.99...... cover price of £25 !! seems to be a good buy,as book was first published last year ....
just got my collins second edition in soft back delivered today from amazon for the delivered price of only £11.19 total, Great book, great price, very happy......
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Did you see it? It was small and brown and flew that way.........................
Forbouy's on Castle St. in Edgeley,Stockport ,had about 4 copies of "The Complete Guide to Birds of Britain and Europe"....a BTO book,edited by Paul Sterry ....A lovely hardback book , price marked at just £5.99...... cover price of £25 !! seems to be a good buy,as book was first published last year ....
Just got my Collins 2nd edition through, and I'm quite impressed. Really like the new plates for stuff like canvasback and redhead. I also like the way some of the plates have been re-arranged to give more space to individual spp or comparing spp - common and rough- legged buzzard now on same page for eg.
Still await the production of the paperback version for using and abusing though. This one will probably remain a 'shelf' book to be used when the paperback version falls apart like my first 1st edition one did.
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No one on their death bed ever said they wished they'd spent more time at work. http://bitsnbirds.blogspot.co.uk
Wonder if the softback printrun will correct the little mistakes in it probally to late now, I never saw them till they got pointed out to me anyway.
There is a whole thread on "Turdforum" just devoted to the mistakes in the new edition, running to quite a few pages - although mostly minor, it is surprising how many there are (indeed, Killian Mullarney and Lars Svensson have felt the need to comment in person !). Apparently though, some/most of these will be corrected in the next print run. Hopefully it should all be sorted in time for the large-format edition later in the year when I shall be opening the sacred wallet....
-- Edited by Ian Woosey on Tuesday 16th of February 2010 10:56:41 PM
Yeah thanks for that just read the thread over there looks like the authors are inviting corrections. Do you not like Birdforum then lol.
Wonder if the softback printrun will correct the little mistakes in it probally to late now, I never saw them till they got pointed out to me anyway.
There is a whole thread on "Turdforum" just devoted to the mistakes in the new edition, running to quite a few pages - although mostly minor, it is surprising how many there are (indeed, Killian Mullarney and Lars Svensson have felt the need to comment in person !). Apparently though, some/most of these will be corrected in the next print run. Hopefully it should all be sorted in time for the large-format edition later in the year when I shall be opening the sacred wallet....
-- Edited by Ian Woosey on Tuesday 16th of February 2010 10:56:41 PM