The second volume in this incredible series on western palearctic birds. This unique and spectacular handbook is the most complete and comprehensive photographic guide to the passerines of the Western Palearctic. Written by two of the world's most respected ornithologists, Hadoram Shirihai and Lars Svensson, it contains the most up-to-date information available on bird identification covering all aspects of plumage, moult, ageing and sexing, with sections on voice and other identification criteria, and detailed taxonomic notes. This second volume covers flycatchers, reedlings, tits, nuthatches, orioles and sunbirds, shrikes, corvids, finches and buntings, along with vagrants. The exceptional text is backed up by a remarkable collection of more than 2,500 photographs in this volume alone, featuring a comprehensive range of plumages that illustrate every race and morph of each species in the region. This stunning handbook will be the definitive reference for the region for years to come - no birder's shelf will be complete without it.

This handbook is the most complete and comprehensive photographic guide to the passerines of the Western Palearctic. Written by two of the world's most respected ornithologists, Hadoram Shirihai and Lars Svensson, it contains the most up-to-date information available on bird identification covering all aspects of plumage, moult, ageing and sexing, with sections on voice and other identification criteria, and detailed taxonomic notes. 0The passerines are divided into two volumes, with the first covering larks, hirundines, pipits and wagtails, bulbuls, accentors, robins, chats, wheatears, thrushes, prinias and cisticolas, and warblers, and the second covering flycatchers, reedlings, tits, nuthatches, orioles and sunbirds, shrikes, corvids, finches and buntings, along with extreme vagrants.0The text is backed up by a remarkable collection of more than 5,000 photographs, featuring a comprehensive range of plumages that illustrate every race and morph of each species in the region.0

The second volume in this incredible series on western palearctic birds. This unique and spectacular handbook is the most complete and comprehensive photographic guide to the passerines of the Western Palearctic. Written by two of the world's most respected ornithologists, Hadoram Shirihai and Lars Svensson, it contains the most up-to-date information available on bird identification covering all aspects of plumage, moult, ageing and sexing, with sections on voice and other identification criteria, and detailed taxonomic notes. This second volume covers flycatchers, reedlings, tits, nuthatches, orioles and sunbirds, shrikes, corvids, finches and buntings, along with vagrants. The exceptional text is backed up by a remarkable collection of more than 2,500 photographs in this volume alone, featuring a comprehensive range of plumages that illustrate every race and morph of each species in the region. This stunning handbook will be the definitive reference for the region for years to come - no birder's shelf will be complete without it.

The first volume in this incredible series on western palearctic birds. This unique and spectacular handbook is the most complete and comprehensive photographic guide to the passerines of the Western Palearctic. Written by two of the world's most respected ornithologists, Hadoram Shirihai and Lars Svensson, it contains the most up-to-date information available on bird identification covering all aspects of plumage, moult, ageing and sexing, with sections on voice and other identification criteria, and detailed taxonomic notes. This first volume covers larks, hirundines, pipits and wagtails, bulbuls, accentors, robins, chats, wheatears, thrushes, prinias and cisticolas, and warblers. The exceptional text is backed up by a remarkable collection of almost 2,500 photographs, featuring a comprehensive range of plumages that illustrate every race and morph of each species in the region. This stunning handbook will be the definitive reference for the region for years to come - no birder's shelf will be complete without it.

The first volume in this incredible series on western palearctic birds. This unique and spectacular handbook is the most complete and comprehensive photographic guide to the passerines of the Western Palearctic. Written by two of the world's most respected ornithologists, Hadoram Shirihai and Lars Svensson, it contains the most up-to-date information available on bird identification covering all aspects of plumage, moult, ageing and sexing, with sections on voice and other identification criteria, and detailed taxonomic notes. This first volume covers larks, hirundines, pipits and wagtails, bulbuls, accentors, robins, chats, wheatears, thrushes, prinias and cisticolas, and warblers. The exceptional text is backed up by a remarkable collection of almost 2,500 photographs, featuring a comprehensive range of plumages that illustrate every race and morph of each species in the region. This stunning handbook will be the definitive reference for the region for years to come - no birder's shelf will be complete without it.

An identification guide covering all the bird species to have occurred in the European region. Birding is one of the most popular activities and pastimes in Europe and so it follows that it is essential to be able to identify the birds on view, be it in the back garden or for making more serious in-depth studies. This book aims to bring together as much information as possible in one volume, using extremely detailed, up-to-date guides and identification of every species known to have occurred in Europe and the West Palearctic, that is, the whole of Europe, North Africa as far south as the Central Sahara, the Middle East to the border of Iran, the Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands, the islands off Mauritania and the Cape Verde islands, as defined by Cramp and Simons 1977. They have certainly been successful in doing so and have produced a wonderfully comprehensive guide covering nearly 900 species, showing a wide range of differing plumages. The colour plates are exquisite and have been painted by some of Europe's leading bird artists. The text is clear and can be followed by beginners but finer points of identification are included for the benefit of more serious bird watchers. Particularly helpful is the cross-referencing of the text and colour plates. There are more than 600 colour maps to identify where the birds are to be found, which are simple and easy to use with excellent descriptions of status and habitat.

Given their roles in the ecosystem, raptors are widely considered the flagship or umbrella species among birds. Most species undertake a seasonal journey that is impressive because of the length, and the imposing natural barriers such as deserts and seas that they fly over. The migration of birds of prey has unique characteristics in the animal world because of their morphology and flight style. The flying path of Afro-Palearctic migrants between breeding and wintering grounds is determined by several factors such as morphology of the birds, geography, behavioural adaptations. The book analyses the migration patterns of raptors along the Afro-Palearctic migratory system, and summarizes the recent research on these top predator species. Behavioural adaptations such as the importance of social interactions and the modulation of the different flight styles as well as ecological interactions with the encountered environment and weather conditions en route are described in the book. Moreover, the impact of climate change on the migratory behaviour and key conservation issues are discussed. The book provides an overview of the migratory characteristics and flyway patterns of all European raptors species and also some Asian ones. These chapters have been written by some of the most important raptor specialists, giving a complete picture of the different migration strategies on the basis of both traditional methods and new technologies.

This innovative guide will be an essential addition to the library of any serious birder. It accurately describes every key detail of every plumage of all 900 species that have ever occurred in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East - the region known to all birdwatchers as the Western Palearctic. Its level of detail is unprecedented for a book of this size. This is a guide with a difference. It has no color plates or illustrations, but instead its unique selling point is that for every species the detailed text lists the key characters of each recognizable plumage, including male, female, immature, juvenile, all subspecies and all other variations. This level of detail includes, for example, all eleven forms of Canada Goose and all nine forms of Yellow Wagtail known in the region. In the past such in-depth detail has only been available in huge multi-volume tomes. This book allows birders to take this information into the field for the first time.

This book is the ultimate flight-identification guide for the raptors of the Western Palaearctic, covering Europe, North Africa, the Middle East (including Arabia) to Central Asia. Raptors are notoriously hard to identify, even if seen well, and represent perhaps the toughest of all ID challenges for birders. This guide provides identification information for all 60 species that regularly occur in the region, to subspecific level. The text covers every plumage and age in detail, with each species account accompanied by a range of photographs covering all the principal plumages. Based on this stunning photographic coverage, most of which has never been published before, this book represents a landmark in bird identification books and a major work for all raptor enthusiasts.

Covering 22 species found in the Western Palearctic and North America, this guide lists each species under the sections of: field identification; moult; description; geographical variation; measurements; and weight. It includes a quick reference section summarising key identification features. Terns are elegant sea and marshland birds that live throughout the world. In Europe and North America a total of twenty-three species is represented, all of which are dealt with in this book. The variations among the species and their subspecies is great, and identification is therefore often highly problematic. Terns are long-distance migrants and can be seen regularly on passage between their normal breeding and wintering areas. Klaus Malling Olsen devotes much attention to the immature and winter plumages of these birds, which are generally inadequately described in most other field guides, while he also deals in depth with the problems of moult, species, and subspecies. The text covers the bird in the field, moult, and the bird in the hand. The author concludes each species account with extensive data on measurements and weight and an itemized key to identification. The text is accompanied by over forty colour plates, which have been specially prepared for this guide by the talented Swedish bird artist Hans Larsson. The book is completed with a forty-eight-page representative photographic section.