great - but tough, 04 Jan 2009
This book is not for the faint-hearted. It goes into the different Holarctic species (and subspecies) of gulls in great depth.
I live in an inland county and don't often see gulls (apart from black-headed and common) on the ground. So in some ways it is way beyond what I need. But it is a superb reference book. And I'm glad to own it.
The sheer amount of detail and no. of drawings and photographs is breath-taking.
As with all bird identification the secret is to get to know the common species intimately first. So getting to grips with the argentatus and argenteus races of Herring gull is probably my next step. Then, who knows, I may get to the point of being able to pick out a Caspian, yellow-legged or even American herring gull from a mixed flock. If I don't, it won't be the fault of Olsen and Larsson!

Stunning!, 16 Jan 2007
This book won the "Birdwatch" book of the year award in 2004, and it certainly deserved it. Gulls can - if you get into them - pose a fascinating identification challenge, because of the wide range of plumages exhibited by each individual species. This book covers in detail - and I do mean detail - the identification of all 43 "Holarctic" gulls. The species accounts are presented as a series of monographs, and while this means that to compare different species you have to flick between pages I can't think of a better was of presenting this depth of information. For each species there is an excellent text, a distribution map and numerous high quality colour illustrations and photographs covering all they key plumages, including hybrids. There are over 800 photographs in all (an incredible 46 of the humble Herring Gull alone), all with individual notes highlighting the specific features they show. Illustrations and photographs both have their pros and cons as identification aids - with this book you get the best of both worlds.

The standard of presentation is excellent, as usual with a Helm guide, and for the keen birder this book is a joy. A word of caution though - it's really not for beginners, who will be overwhelmed by the amount of detail and will miss the "side by side" comparisons of similar species that are a feature of good general field guides.

great - but tough, 04 Jan 2009
This book is not for the faint-hearted. It goes into the different Holarctic species (and subspecies) of gulls in great depth.
I live in an inland county and don't often see gulls (apart from black-headed and common) on the ground. So in some ways it is way beyond what I need. But it is a superb reference book. And I'm glad to own it.
The sheer amount of detail and no. of drawings and photographs is breath-taking.
As with all bird identification the secret is to get to know the common species intimately first. So getting to grips with the argentatus and argenteus races of Herring gull is probably my next step. Then, who knows, I may get to the point of being able to pick out a Caspian, yellow-legged or even American herring gull from a mixed flock. If I don't, it won't be the fault of Olsen and Larsson!

Stunning!, 16 Jan 2007
This book won the "Birdwatch" book of the year award in 2004, and it certainly deserved it. Gulls can - if you get into them - pose a fascinating identification challenge, because of the wide range of plumages exhibited by each individual species. This book covers in detail - and I do mean detail - the identification of all 43 "Holarctic" gulls. The species accounts are presented as a series of monographs, and while this means that to compare different species you have to flick between pages I can't think of a better was of presenting this depth of information. For each species there is an excellent text, a distribution map and numerous high quality colour illustrations and photographs covering all they key plumages, including hybrids. There are over 800 photographs in all (an incredible 46 of the humble Herring Gull alone), all with individual notes highlighting the specific features they show. Illustrations and photographs both have their pros and cons as identification aids - with this book you get the best of both worlds.

The standard of presentation is excellent, as usual with a Helm guide, and for the keen birder this book is a joy. A word of caution though - it's really not for beginners, who will be overwhelmed by the amount of detail and will miss the "side by side" comparisons of similar species that are a feature of good general field guides.


Excellent clear practical guide, 09 Oct 2004
This guide is beautifully illustrated with clear drawings and distribution maps. It is portable, robustly bound and is well printed. I wanted a pocket guide to the birds of Margarita Island which is just off the Venezuelan coast but not an official West Indian Island. The Steven Hilty book "Birds of Venezuela" is exhaustive but too heavy, so I annotated the Helm guide to the West Indies. This proved a successful compromise.
I hope one day to visit the West Indies proper and will take my copy of this West Indies guide with me. I will not take the Macmillan "Birds of the Eastern Caribbean" as the photos are nowhere near as good as the illustrations in this Helm guide.

great - but tough, 04 Jan 2009
This book is not for the faint-hearted. It goes into the different Holarctic species (and subspecies) of gulls in great depth.
I live in an inland county and don't often see gulls (apart from black-headed and common) on the ground. So in some ways it is way beyond what I need. But it is a superb reference book. And I'm glad to own it.
The sheer amount of detail and no. of drawings and photographs is breath-taking.
As with all bird identification the secret is to get to know the common species intimately first. So getting to grips with the argentatus and argenteus races of Herring gull is probably my next step. Then, who knows, I may get to the point of being able to pick out a Caspian, yellow-legged or even American herring gull from a mixed flock. If I don't, it won't be the fault of Olsen and Larsson!

Stunning!, 16 Jan 2007
This book won the "Birdwatch" book of the year award in 2004, and it certainly deserved it. Gulls can - if you get into them - pose a fascinating identification challenge, because of the wide range of plumages exhibited by each individual species. This book covers in detail - and I do mean detail - the identification of all 43 "Holarctic" gulls. The species accounts are presented as a series of monographs, and while this means that to compare different species you have to flick between pages I can't think of a better was of presenting this depth of information. For each species there is an excellent text, a distribution map and numerous high quality colour illustrations and photographs covering all they key plumages, including hybrids. There are over 800 photographs in all (an incredible 46 of the humble Herring Gull alone), all with individual notes highlighting the specific features they show. Illustrations and photographs both have their pros and cons as identification aids - with this book you get the best of both worlds.

The standard of presentation is excellent, as usual with a Helm guide, and for the keen birder this book is a joy. A word of caution though - it's really not for beginners, who will be overwhelmed by the amount of detail and will miss the "side by side" comparisons of similar species that are a feature of good general field guides.


Excellent clear practical guide, 09 Oct 2004
This guide is beautifully illustrated with clear drawings and distribution maps. It is portable, robustly bound and is well printed. I wanted a pocket guide to the birds of Margarita Island which is just off the Venezuelan coast but not an official West Indian Island. The Steven Hilty book "Birds of Venezuela" is exhaustive but too heavy, so I annotated the Helm guide to the West Indies. This proved a successful compromise.
I hope one day to visit the West Indies proper and will take my copy of this West Indies guide with me. I will not take the Macmillan "Birds of the Eastern Caribbean" as the photos are nowhere near as good as the illustrations in this Helm guide.

Nice surprise, 04 Oct 2007
This guide, which I still prefer to consider as a "first-class" checklist includes 1273 species, all the non-passerine birds from South America (note that not the whole Neotropic region!)
After having the book "Birds of southern South America and Antarctica", I didnt have too much expectation, but now I can tell, they are not on the same level.

This book has an "extra" 33 pages family descreption, which is unusual in books like this. It has infos about behaviour and habit, and some intersting facts too. After come the text and the plates. The illustration are very very good, among the finest for neotropical birds ever published.
Maps are on the same page, but they are extremly small, and only good for overall idea of the birds distribution.

I dont know how good this book in the field, but if you have an interest on South American birds or you just love bird-art, this is a very good choice.

great - but tough, 04 Jan 2009
This book is not for the faint-hearted. It goes into the different Holarctic species (and subspecies) of gulls in great depth.
I live in an inland county and don't often see gulls (apart from black-headed and common) on the ground. So in some ways it is way beyond what I need. But it is a superb reference book. And I'm glad to own it.
The sheer amount of detail and no. of drawings and photographs is breath-taking.
As with all bird identification the secret is to get to know the common species intimately first. So getting to grips with the argentatus and argenteus races of Herring gull is probably my next step. Then, who knows, I may get to the point of being able to pick out a Caspian, yellow-legged or even American herring gull from a mixed flock. If I don't, it won't be the fault of Olsen and Larsson!

Stunning!, 16 Jan 2007
This book won the "Birdwatch" book of the year award in 2004, and it certainly deserved it. Gulls can - if you get into them - pose a fascinating identification challenge, because of the wide range of plumages exhibited by each individual species. This book covers in detail - and I do mean detail - the identification of all 43 "Holarctic" gulls. The species accounts are presented as a series of monographs, and while this means that to compare different species you have to flick between pages I can't think of a better was of presenting this depth of information. For each species there is an excellent text, a distribution map and numerous high quality colour illustrations and photographs covering all they key plumages, including hybrids. There are over 800 photographs in all (an incredible 46 of the humble Herring Gull alone), all with individual notes highlighting the specific features they show. Illustrations and photographs both have their pros and cons as identification aids - with this book you get the best of both worlds.

The standard of presentation is excellent, as usual with a Helm guide, and for the keen birder this book is a joy. A word of caution though - it's really not for beginners, who will be overwhelmed by the amount of detail and will miss the "side by side" comparisons of similar species that are a feature of good general field guides.


Excellent clear practical guide, 09 Oct 2004
This guide is beautifully illustrated with clear drawings and distribution maps. It is portable, robustly bound and is well printed. I wanted a pocket guide to the birds of Margarita Island which is just off the Venezuelan coast but not an official West Indian Island. The Steven Hilty book "Birds of Venezuela" is exhaustive but too heavy, so I annotated the Helm guide to the West Indies. This proved a successful compromise.
I hope one day to visit the West Indies proper and will take my copy of this West Indies guide with me. I will not take the Macmillan "Birds of the Eastern Caribbean" as the photos are nowhere near as good as the illustrations in this Helm guide.

Nice surprise, 04 Oct 2007
This guide, which I still prefer to consider as a "first-class" checklist includes 1273 species, all the non-passerine birds from South America (note that not the whole Neotropic region!)
After having the book "Birds of southern South America and Antarctica", I didnt have too much expectation, but now I can tell, they are not on the same level.

This book has an "extra" 33 pages family descreption, which is unusual in books like this. It has infos about behaviour and habit, and some intersting facts too. After come the text and the plates. The illustration are very very good, among the finest for neotropical birds ever published.
Maps are on the same page, but they are extremly small, and only good for overall idea of the birds distribution.

I dont know how good this book in the field, but if you have an interest on South American birds or you just love bird-art, this is a very good choice.

Slightly disappointing compared to available guides, 25 Sep 2007
Being a shorebird enthusiast, I have had this title in my sights for a while and planned to purchase it as soon as I could find a copy to look through. I have owned the old Helm guide since it came out but, for portability, in the field I tend to use Sibley or the Collins Bird Guide as a shorebird identification supplement to whatever national guide I am using (that is here in the Western Hemisphere). I felt it was about time I got my library up-to-date with this new volume which promised to supersede all my guides. However, when I finally managed to look over a copy I have to say I found it a little disappointing. For me at least, the illustrations do not match those of Killian Mullarney, Peter Hayman or David Sibley and the text does not seem to add much to the older Helm guide - indeed, I prefer that pioneering guide. It just shows how much care went into the preparation of those older guides - Shorebirds is 21 years old now and still hard to beat! This may be a personal view - and admittedly based on a short perusal - but I could not justify adding the book to my library.

Chris Sharpe, 25 September 2007. ISBN: 071365290X

Helm Field Guides: Waders of Europe, Asia and North America, 06 Feb 2006
Helm’s new field guide covers 125 species of waders in a little over 220 pages and is divided into three sections – Introduction, Waders at rest and Waders in flight.

The 25 page introduction covers many field guide standards such as bird topography, moult, plumage variation and behaviour. It includes a number of useful identification tips and is liberally scattered with Steve’s illustrations including some particularly pleasing ‘looser’ paintings depicting aspects of wader behaviour.

The waders at rest section consists of 45 double page spreads each covering two to four species. The text is concise and starts with a few ‘key ID features’ before covering behaviour, habitat, plumage and confusion species.

Most potential purchasers will look at the illustrations first and this is where the guide scores highly. The large image size and uncluttered design of the plates makes them a joy to browse through or grill intensely. Steve Message has done an excellent job at illustrating a very difficult group of birds and has produced some of the best field guide plates of recent times.

The in flight section gives upper- and under-wing illustrations and brief notes covering key ID features, flight action, voice, distribution and confusion species as well as distribution maps. It finishes with two appendices that tabulate upper- and under-part flight patterns.

This is a very good guide for anyone who wants to take their shorebirding to a new level and will certainly help you identify a Baird’s Sandpiper in Hampshire or a Bar-tailed Godwit in New Hampshire.

great - but tough, 04 Jan 2009
This book is not for the faint-hearted. It goes into the different Holarctic species (and subspecies) of gulls in great depth.
I live in an inland county and don't often see gulls (apart from black-headed and common) on the ground. So in some ways it is way beyond what I need. But it is a superb reference book. And I'm glad to own it.
The sheer amount of detail and no. of drawings and photographs is breath-taking.
As with all bird identification the secret is to get to know the common species intimately first. So getting to grips with the argentatus and argenteus races of Herring gull is probably my next step. Then, who knows, I may get to the point of being able to pick out a Caspian, yellow-legged or even American herring gull from a mixed flock. If I don't, it won't be the fault of Olsen and Larsson!

Stunning!, 16 Jan 2007
This book won the "Birdwatch" book of the year award in 2004, and it certainly deserved it. Gulls can - if you get into them - pose a fascinating identification challenge, because of the wide range of plumages exhibited by each individual species. This book covers in detail - and I do mean detail - the identification of all 43 "Holarctic" gulls. The species accounts are presented as a series of monographs, and while this means that to compare different species you have to flick between pages I can't think of a better was of presenting this depth of information. For each species there is an excellent text, a distribution map and numerous high quality colour illustrations and photographs covering all they key plumages, including hybrids. There are over 800 photographs in all (an incredible 46 of the humble Herring Gull alone), all with individual notes highlighting the specific features they show. Illustrations and photographs both have their pros and cons as identification aids - with this book you get the best of both worlds.

The standard of presentation is excellent, as usual with a Helm guide, and for the keen birder this book is a joy. A word of caution though - it's really not for beginners, who will be overwhelmed by the amount of detail and will miss the "side by side" comparisons of similar species that are a feature of good general field guides.


Excellent clear practical guide, 09 Oct 2004
This guide is beautifully illustrated with clear drawings and distribution maps. It is portable, robustly bound and is well printed. I wanted a pocket guide to the birds of Margarita Island which is just off the Venezuelan coast but not an official West Indian Island. The Steven Hilty book "Birds of Venezuela" is exhaustive but too heavy, so I annotated the Helm guide to the West Indies. This proved a successful compromise.
I hope one day to visit the West Indies proper and will take my copy of this West Indies guide with me. I will not take the Macmillan "Birds of the Eastern Caribbean" as the photos are nowhere near as good as the illustrations in this Helm guide.

Nice surprise, 04 Oct 2007
This guide, which I still prefer to consider as a "first-class" checklist includes 1273 species, all the non-passerine birds from South America (note that not the whole Neotropic region!)
After having the book "Birds of southern South America and Antarctica", I didnt have too much expectation, but now I can tell, they are not on the same level.

This book has an "extra" 33 pages family descreption, which is unusual in books like this. It has infos about behaviour and habit, and some intersting facts too. After come the text and the plates. The illustration are very very good, among the finest for neotropical birds ever published.
Maps are on the same page, but they are extremly small, and only good for overall idea of the birds distribution.

I dont know how good this book in the field, but if you have an interest on South American birds or you just love bird-art, this is a very good choice.

Slightly disappointing compared to available guides, 25 Sep 2007
Being a shorebird enthusiast, I have had this title in my sights for a while and planned to purchase it as soon as I could find a copy to look through. I have owned the old Helm guide since it came out but, for portability, in the field I tend to use Sibley or the Collins Bird Guide as a shorebird identification supplement to whatever national guide I am using (that is here in the Western Hemisphere). I felt it was about time I got my library up-to-date with this new volume which promised to supersede all my guides. However, when I finally managed to look over a copy I have to say I found it a little disappointing. For me at least, the illustrations do not match those of Killian Mullarney, Peter Hayman or David Sibley and the text does not seem to add much to the older Helm guide - indeed, I prefer that pioneering guide. It just shows how much care went into the preparation of those older guides - Shorebirds is 21 years old now and still hard to beat! This may be a personal view - and admittedly based on a short perusal - but I could not justify adding the book to my library.

Chris Sharpe, 25 September 2007. ISBN: 071365290X

Helm Field Guides: Waders of Europe, Asia and North America, 06 Feb 2006
Helm’s new field guide covers 125 species of waders in a little over 220 pages and is divided into three sections – Introduction, Waders at rest and Waders in flight.

The 25 page introduction covers many field guide standards such as bird topography, moult, plumage variation and behaviour. It includes a number of useful identification tips and is liberally scattered with Steve’s illustrations including some particularly pleasing ‘looser’ paintings depicting aspects of wader behaviour.

The waders at rest section consists of 45 double page spreads each covering two to four species. The text is concise and starts with a few ‘key ID features’ before covering behaviour, habitat, plumage and confusion species.

Most potential purchasers will look at the illustrations first and this is where the guide scores highly. The large image size and uncluttered design of the plates makes them a joy to browse through or grill intensely. Steve Message has done an excellent job at illustrating a very difficult group of birds and has produced some of the best field guide plates of recent times.

The in flight section gives upper- and under-wing illustrations and brief notes covering key ID features, flight action, voice, distribution and confusion species as well as distribution maps. It finishes with two appendices that tabulate upper- and under-part flight patterns.

This is a very good guide for anyone who wants to take their shorebirding to a new level and will certainly help you identify a Baird’s Sandpiper in Hampshire or a Bar-tailed Godwit in New Hampshire.

Great bird guide in a handy format, 22 Apr 2008
I'm from europe and do birdwatching in europe. I got this for my trip to Florida, and had a lot of use for it, as I stayed in an area with a lot of swamps and forests, and lots of wading birds. The book made it fast and easy to identify american birds, it points out characteristic details in flight and behavior, not only color and pattern, that might not always be visible. Sound descriptions are good and accurate. It is everything you'd expect from a modern bird book.

In addition, it is a thing of beauty, the illustrations are not only very informative, but also very beautiful. The text is also very interesting, even when not out in the field.

Get it, wether you live in eastern Northern America, or is just visiting!

great - but tough, 04 Jan 2009
This book is not for the faint-hearted. It goes into the different Holarctic species (and subspecies) of gulls in great depth.
I live in an inland county and don't often see gulls (apart from black-headed and common) on the ground. So in some ways it is way beyond what I need. But it is a superb reference book. And I'm glad to own it.
The sheer amount of detail and no. of drawings and photographs is breath-taking.
As with all bird identification the secret is to get to know the common species intimately first. So getting to grips with the argentatus and argenteus races of Herring gull is probably my next step. Then, who knows, I may get to the point of being able to pick out a Caspian, yellow-legged or even American herring gull from a mixed flock. If I don't, it won't be the fault of Olsen and Larsson!

Stunning!, 16 Jan 2007
This book won the "Birdwatch" book of the year award in 2004, and it certainly deserved it. Gulls can - if you get into them - pose a fascinating identification challenge, because of the wide range of plumages exhibited by each individual species. This book covers in detail - and I do mean detail - the identification of all 43 "Holarctic" gulls. The species accounts are presented as a series of monographs, and while this means that to compare different species you have to flick between pages I can't think of a better was of presenting this depth of information. For each species there is an excellent text, a distribution map and numerous high quality colour illustrations and photographs covering all they key plumages, including hybrids. There are over 800 photographs in all (an incredible 46 of the humble Herring Gull alone), all with individual notes highlighting the specific features they show. Illustrations and photographs both have their pros and cons as identification aids - with this book you get the best of both worlds.

The standard of presentation is excellent, as usual with a Helm guide, and for the keen birder this book is a joy. A word of caution though - it's really not for beginners, who will be overwhelmed by the amount of detail and will miss the "side by side" comparisons of similar species that are a feature of good general field guides.


Excellent clear practical guide, 09 Oct 2004
This guide is beautifully illustrated with clear drawings and distribution maps. It is portable, robustly bound and is well printed. I wanted a pocket guide to the birds of Margarita Island which is just off the Venezuelan coast but not an official West Indian Island. The Steven Hilty book "Birds of Venezuela" is exhaustive but too heavy, so I annotated the Helm guide to the West Indies. This proved a successful compromise.
I hope one day to visit the West Indies proper and will take my copy of this West Indies guide with me. I will not take the Macmillan "Birds of the Eastern Caribbean" as the photos are nowhere near as good as the illustrations in this Helm guide.

Nice surprise, 04 Oct 2007
This guide, which I still prefer to consider as a "first-class" checklist includes 1273 species, all the non-passerine birds from South America (note that not the whole Neotropic region!)
After having the book "Birds of southern South America and Antarctica", I didnt have too much expectation, but now I can tell, they are not on the same level.

This book has an "extra" 33 pages family descreption, which is unusual in books like this. It has infos about behaviour and habit, and some intersting facts too. After come the text and the plates. The illustration are very very good, among the finest for neotropical birds ever published.
Maps are on the same page, but they are extremly small, and only good for overall idea of the birds distribution.

I dont know how good this book in the field, but if you have an interest on South American birds or you just love bird-art, this is a very good choice.

Slightly disappointing compared to available guides, 25 Sep 2007
Being a shorebird enthusiast, I have had this title in my sights for a while and planned to purchase it as soon as I could find a copy to look through. I have owned the old Helm guide since it came out but, for portability, in the field I tend to use Sibley or the Collins Bird Guide as a shorebird identification supplement to whatever national guide I am using (that is here in the Western Hemisphere). I felt it was about time I got my library up-to-date with this new volume which promised to supersede all my guides. However, when I finally managed to look over a copy I have to say I found it a little disappointing. For me at least, the illustrations do not match those of Killian Mullarney, Peter Hayman or David Sibley and the text does not seem to add much to the older Helm guide - indeed, I prefer that pioneering guide. It just shows how much care went into the preparation of those older guides - Shorebirds is 21 years old now and still hard to beat! This may be a personal view - and admittedly based on a short perusal - but I could not justify adding the book to my library.

Chris Sharpe, 25 September 2007. ISBN: 071365290X

Helm Field Guides: Waders of Europe, Asia and North America, 06 Feb 2006
Helm’s new field guide covers 125 species of waders in a little over 220 pages and is divided into three sections – Introduction, Waders at rest and Waders in flight.

The 25 page introduction covers many field guide standards such as bird topography, moult, plumage variation and behaviour. It includes a number of useful identification tips and is liberally scattered with Steve’s illustrations including some particularly pleasing ‘looser’ paintings depicting aspects of wader behaviour.

The waders at rest section consists of 45 double page spreads each covering two to four species. The text is concise and starts with a few ‘key ID features’ before covering behaviour, habitat, plumage and confusion species.

Most potential purchasers will look at the illustrations first and this is where the guide scores highly. The large image size and uncluttered design of the plates makes them a joy to browse through or grill intensely. Steve Message has done an excellent job at illustrating a very difficult group of birds and has produced some of the best field guide plates of recent times.

The in flight section gives upper- and under-wing illustrations and brief notes covering key ID features, flight action, voice, distribution and confusion species as well as distribution maps. It finishes with two appendices that tabulate upper- and under-part flight patterns.

This is a very good guide for anyone who wants to take their shorebirding to a new level and will certainly help you identify a Baird’s Sandpiper in Hampshire or a Bar-tailed Godwit in New Hampshire.

Great bird guide in a handy format, 22 Apr 2008
I'm from europe and do birdwatching in europe. I got this for my trip to Florida, and had a lot of use for it, as I stayed in an area with a lot of swamps and forests, and lots of wading birds. The book made it fast and easy to identify american birds, it points out characteristic details in flight and behavior, not only color and pattern, that might not always be visible. Sound descriptions are good and accurate. It is everything you'd expect from a modern bird book.

In addition, it is a thing of beauty, the illustrations are not only very informative, but also very beautiful. The text is also very interesting, even when not out in the field.

Get it, wether you live in eastern Northern America, or is just visiting!

A great book with a pesky fault, 08 Dec 1998
This field guide will enable you to see paintings of all of the birds that occur in the area. It also discusses (briefly) each bird. The paintings are excellent and the copy is quick and to the point. To pick at nits, though, the arrangement of the paintings is confusing. Not all birds in a specific family are illustrated on the same plate, and some are found pages away from the rest of their family. The logic seems to be that if the bird is found regularly in northern North America (the elegant trogon, for example) its picture does not need to run with the rest of its relatives. Close study of the guide can overcome this problem, however, making it an easy, economical way to pack the information of other guides into the field.

great - but tough, 04 Jan 2009
This book is not for the faint-hearted. It goes into the different Holarctic species (and subspecies) of gulls in great depth.
I live in an inland county and don't often see gulls (apart from black-headed and common) on the ground. So in some ways it is way beyond what I need. But it is a superb reference book. And I'm glad to own it.
The sheer amount of detail and no. of drawings and photographs is breath-taking.
As with all bird identification the secret is to get to know the common species intimately first. So getting to grips with the argentatus and argenteus races of Herring gull is probably my next step. Then, who knows, I may get to the point of being able to pick out a Caspian, yellow-legged or even American herring gull from a mixed flock. If I don't, it won't be the fault of Olsen and Larsson!

Stunning!, 16 Jan 2007
This book won the "Birdwatch" book of the year award in 2004, and it certainly deserved it. Gulls can - if you get into them - pose a fascinating identification challenge, because of the wide range of plumages exhibited by each individual species. This book covers in detail - and I do mean detail - the identification of all 43 "Holarctic" gulls. The species accounts are presented as a series of monographs, and while this means that to compare different species you have to flick between pages I can't think of a better was of presenting this depth of information. For each species there is an excellent text, a distribution map and numerous high quality colour illustrations and photographs covering all they key plumages, including hybrids. There are over 800 photographs in all (an incredible 46 of the humble Herring Gull alone), all with individual notes highlighting the specific features they show. Illustrations and photographs both have their pros and cons as identification aids - with this book you get the best of both worlds.

The standard of presentation is excellent, as usual with a Helm guide, and for the keen birder this book is a joy. A word of caution though - it's really not for beginners, who will be overwhelmed by the amount of detail and will miss the "side by side" comparisons of similar species that are a feature of good general field guides.


Excellent clear practical guide, 09 Oct 2004
This guide is beautifully illustrated with clear drawings and distribution maps. It is portable, robustly bound and is well printed. I wanted a pocket guide to the birds of Margarita Island which is just off the Venezuelan coast but not an official West Indian Island. The Steven Hilty book "Birds of Venezuela" is exhaustive but too heavy, so I annotated the Helm guide to the West Indies. This proved a successful compromise.
I hope one day to visit the West Indies proper and will take my copy of this West Indies guide with me. I will not take the Macmillan "Birds of the Eastern Caribbean" as the photos are nowhere near as good as the illustrations in this Helm guide.

Nice surprise, 04 Oct 2007
This guide, which I still prefer to consider as a "first-class" checklist includes 1273 species, all the non-passerine birds from South America (note that not the whole Neotropic region!)
After having the book "Birds of southern South America and Antarctica", I didnt have too much expectation, but now I can tell, they are not on the same level.

This book has an "extra" 33 pages family descreption, which is unusual in books like this. It has infos about behaviour and habit, and some intersting facts too. After come the text and the plates. The illustration are very very good, among the finest for neotropical birds ever published.
Maps are on the same page, but they are extremly small, and only good for overall idea of the birds distribution.

I dont know how good this book in the field, but if you have an interest on South American birds or you just love bird-art, this is a very good choice.

Slightly disappointing compared to available guides, 25 Sep 2007
Being a shorebird enthusiast, I have had this title in my sights for a while and planned to purchase it as soon as I could find a copy to look through. I have owned the old Helm guide since it came out but, for portability, in the field I tend to use Sibley or the Collins Bird Guide as a shorebird identification supplement to whatever national guide I am using (that is here in the Western Hemisphere). I felt it was about time I got my library up-to-date with this new volume which promised to supersede all my guides. However, when I finally managed to look over a copy I have to say I found it a little disappointing. For me at least, the illustrations do not match those of Killian Mullarney, Peter Hayman or David Sibley and the text does not seem to add much to the older Helm guide - indeed, I prefer that pioneering guide. It just shows how much care went into the preparation of those older guides - Shorebirds is 21 years old now and still hard to beat! This may be a personal view - and admittedly based on a short perusal - but I could not justify adding the book to my library.

Chris Sharpe, 25 September 2007. ISBN: 071365290X

Helm Field Guides: Waders of Europe, Asia and North America, 06 Feb 2006
Helm’s new field guide covers 125 species of waders in a little over 220 pages and is divided into three sections – Introduction, Waders at rest and Waders in flight.

The 25 page introduction covers many field guide standards such as bird topography, moult, plumage variation and behaviour. It includes a number of useful identification tips and is liberally scattered with Steve’s illustrations including some particularly pleasing ‘looser’ paintings depicting aspects of wader behaviour.

The waders at rest section consists of 45 double page spreads each covering two to four species. The text is concise and starts with a few ‘key ID features’ before covering behaviour, habitat, plumage and confusion species.

Most potential purchasers will look at the illustrations first and this is where the guide scores highly. The large image size and uncluttered design of the plates makes them a joy to browse through or grill intensely. Steve Message has done an excellent job at illustrating a very difficult group of birds and has produced some of the best field guide plates of recent times.

The in flight section gives upper- and under-wing illustrations and brief notes covering key ID features, flight action, voice, distribution and confusion species as well as distribution maps. It finishes with two appendices that tabulate upper- and under-part flight patterns.

This is a very good guide for anyone who wants to take their shorebirding to a new level and will certainly help you identify a Baird’s Sandpiper in Hampshire or a Bar-tailed Godwit in New Hampshire.

Great bird guide in a handy format, 22 Apr 2008
I'm from europe and do birdwatching in europe. I got this for my trip to Florida, and had a lot of use for it, as I stayed in an area with a lot of swamps and forests, and lots of wading birds. The book made it fast and easy to identify american birds, it points out characteristic details in flight and behavior, not only color and pattern, that might not always be visible. Sound descriptions are good and accurate. It is everything you'd expect from a modern bird book.

In addition, it is a thing of beauty, the illustrations are not only very informative, but also very beautiful. The text is also very interesting, even when not out in the field.

Get it, wether you live in eastern Northern America, or is just visiting!

A great book with a pesky fault, 08 Dec 1998
This field guide will enable you to see paintings of all of the birds that occur in the area. It also discusses (briefly) each bird. The paintings are excellent and the copy is quick and to the point. To pick at nits, though, the arrangement of the paintings is confusing. Not all birds in a specific family are illustrated on the same plate, and some are found pages away from the rest of their family. The logic seems to be that if the bird is found regularly in northern North America (the elegant trogon, for example) its picture does not need to run with the rest of its relatives. Close study of the guide can overcome this problem, however, making it an easy, economical way to pack the information of other guides into the field.

Bird Book, 16 May 1999
4 star book

A step above the rest, 02 May 1999
I have an older edition of this book and must say that it's the best field guide available. It's a true classic and is always the one that goes with me out in the field. There's nothing missing. The bird drawings are truly the best I've seen in a bird identification book. It's also the easiest to carry along when I go birding. A step above all of the others. Roger Tory Peterson truly produced an indispensable field guide.

Great for those new to bird watching, 04 Sep 1998
The detailed illustrations and text make identifying birds easy.

great - but tough, 04 Jan 2009
This book is not for the faint-hearted. It goes into the different Holarctic species (and subspecies) of gulls in great depth.
I live in an inland county and don't often see gulls (apart from black-headed and common) on the ground. So in some ways it is way beyond what I need. But it is a superb reference book. And I'm glad to own it.
The sheer amount of detail and no. of drawings and photographs is breath-taking.
As with all bird identification the secret is to get to know the common species intimately first. So getting to grips with the argentatus and argenteus races of Herring gull is probably my next step. Then, who knows, I may get to the point of being able to pick out a Caspian, yellow-legged or even American herring gull from a mixed flock. If I don't, it won't be the fault of Olsen and Larsson!

Stunning!, 16 Jan 2007
This book won the "Birdwatch" book of the year award in 2004, and it certainly deserved it. Gulls can - if you get into them - pose a fascinating identification challenge, because of the wide range of plumages exhibited by each individual species. This book covers in detail - and I do mean detail - the identification of all 43 "Holarctic" gulls. The species accounts are presented as a series of monographs, and while this means that to compare different species you have to flick between pages I can't think of a better was of presenting this depth of information. For each species there is an excellent text, a distribution map and numerous high quality colour illustrations and photographs covering all they key plumages, including hybrids. There are over 800 photographs in all (an incredible 46 of the humble Herring Gull alone), all with individual notes highlighting the specific features they show. Illustrations and photographs both have their pros and cons as identification aids - with this book you get the best of both worlds.

The standard of presentation is excellent, as usual with a Helm guide, and for the keen birder this book is a joy. A word of caution though - it's really not for beginners, who will be overwhelmed by the amount of detail and will miss the "side by side" comparisons of similar species that are a feature of good general field guides.


Excellent clear practical guide, 09 Oct 2004
This guide is beautifully illustrated with clear drawings and distribution maps. It is portable, robustly bound and is well printed. I wanted a pocket guide to the birds of Margarita Island which is just off the Venezuelan coast but not an official West Indian Island. The Steven Hilty book "Birds of Venezuela" is exhaustive but too heavy, so I annotated the Helm guide to the West Indies. This proved a successful compromise.
I hope one day to visit the West Indies proper and will take my copy of this West Indies guide with me. I will not take the Macmillan "Birds of the Eastern Caribbean" as the photos are nowhere near as good as the illustrations in this Helm guide.

Nice surprise, 04 Oct 2007
This guide, which I still prefer to consider as a "first-class" checklist includes 1273 species, all the non-passerine birds from South America (note that not the whole Neotropic region!)
After having the book "Birds of southern South America and Antarctica", I didnt have too much expectation, but now I can tell, they are not on the same level.

This book has an "extra" 33 pages family descreption, which is unusual in books like this. It has infos about behaviour and habit, and some intersting facts too. After come the text and the plates. The illustration are very very good, among the finest for neotropical birds ever published.
Maps are on the same page, but they are extremly small, and only good for overall idea of the birds distribution.

I dont know how good this book in the field, but if you have an interest on South American birds or you just love bird-art, this is a very good choice.

Slightly disappointing compared to available guides, 25 Sep 2007
Being a shorebird enthusiast, I have had this title in my sights for a while and planned to purchase it as soon as I could find a copy to look through. I have owned the old Helm guide since it came out but, for portability, in the field I tend to use Sibley or the Collins Bird Guide as a shorebird identification supplement to whatever national guide I am using (that is here in the Western Hemisphere). I felt it was about time I got my library up-to-date with this new volume which promised to supersede all my guides. However, when I finally managed to look over a copy I have to say I found it a little disappointing. For me at least, the illustrations do not match those of Killian Mullarney, Peter Hayman or David Sibley and the text does not seem to add much to the older Helm guide - indeed, I prefer that pioneering guide. It just shows how much care went into the preparation of those older guides - Shorebirds is 21 years old now and still hard to beat! This may be a personal view - and admittedly based on a short perusal - but I could not justify adding the book to my library.

Chris Sharpe, 25 September 2007. ISBN: 071365290X

Helm Field Guides: Waders of Europe, Asia and North America, 06 Feb 2006
Helm’s new field guide covers 125 species of waders in a little over 220 pages and is divided into three sections – Introduction, Waders at rest and Waders in flight.

The 25 page introduction covers many field guide standards such as bird topography, moult, plumage variation and behaviour. It includes a number of useful identification tips and is liberally scattered with Steve’s illustrations including some particularly pleasing ‘looser’ paintings depicting aspects of wader behaviour.

The waders at rest section consists of 45 double page spreads each covering two to four species. The text is concise and starts with a few ‘key ID features’ before covering behaviour, habitat, plumage and confusion species.

Most potential purchasers will look at the illustrations first and this is where the guide scores highly. The large image size and uncluttered design of the plates makes them a joy to browse through or grill intensely. Steve Message has done an excellent job at illustrating a very difficult group of birds and has produced some of the best field guide plates of recent times.

The in flight section gives upper- and under-wing illustrations and brief notes covering key ID features, flight action, voice, distribution and confusion species as well as distribution maps. It finishes with two appendices that tabulate upper- and under-part flight patterns.

This is a very good guide for anyone who wants to take their shorebirding to a new level and will certainly help you identify a Baird’s Sandpiper in Hampshire or a Bar-tailed Godwit in New Hampshire.

Great bird guide in a handy format, 22 Apr 2008
I'm from europe and do birdwatching in europe. I got this for my trip to Florida, and had a lot of use for it, as I stayed in an area with a lot of swamps and forests, and lots of wading birds. The book made it fast and easy to identify american birds, it points out characteristic details in flight and behavior, not only color and pattern, that might not always be visible. Sound descriptions are good and accurate. It is everything you'd expect from a modern bird book.

In addition, it is a thing of beauty, the illustrations are not only very informative, but also very beautiful. The text is also very interesting, even when not out in the field.

Get it, wether you live in eastern Northern America, or is just visiting!

A great book with a pesky fault, 08 Dec 1998
This field guide will enable you to see paintings of all of the birds that occur in the area. It also discusses (briefly) each bird. The paintings are excellent and the copy is quick and to the point. To pick at nits, though, the arrangement of the paintings is confusing. Not all birds in a specific family are illustrated on the same plate, and some are found pages away from the rest of their family. The logic seems to be that if the bird is found regularly in northern North America (the elegant trogon, for example) its picture does not need to run with the rest of its relatives. Close study of the guide can overcome this problem, however, making it an easy, economical way to pack the information of other guides into the field.

Bird Book, 16 May 1999
4 star book

A step above the rest, 02 May 1999
I have an older edition of this book and must say that it's the best field guide available. It's a true classic and is always the one that goes with me out in the field. There's nothing missing. The bird drawings are truly the best I've seen in a bird identification book. It's also the easiest to carry along when I go birding. A step above all of the others. Roger Tory Peterson truly produced an indispensable field guide.

Great for those new to bird watching, 04 Sep 1998
The detailed illustrations and text make identifying birds easy.

Coomon Birds of Egypt, 11 Apr 2008
Although not detailed enough for the serious twitcher this is an excellent book for the interested birder. Small enough to carry with you, it would easily fit into a large pocket or camera case, it offers a good insight into the birds of the Nile Valley and the Red Sea Coasts. Don't be put off by the odd format. It starts in English at the front and Arabic at the back but with a short section on where to see birds in Egypt, good quality coloured illustrations and a brief description of each bird's habitat this is all that one needs to identify most birds you would expect to see during a holiday in Egypt.

great - but tough, 04 Jan 2009
This book is not for the faint-hearted. It goes into the different Holarctic species (and subspecies) of gulls in great depth.
I live in an inland county and don't often see gulls (apart from black-headed and common) on the ground. So in some ways it is way beyond what I need. But it is a superb reference book. And I'm glad to own it.
The sheer amount of detail and no. of drawings and photographs is breath-taking.
As with all bird identification the secret is to get to know the common species intimately first. So getting to grips with the argentatus and argenteus races of Herring gull is probably my next step. Then, who knows, I may get to the point of being able to pick out a Caspian, yellow-legged or even American herring gull from a mixed flock. If I don't, it won't be the fault of Olsen and Larsson!

Stunning!, 16 Jan 2007
This book won the "Birdwatch" book of the year award in 2004, and it certainly deserved it. Gulls can - if you get into them - pose a fascinating identification challenge, because of the wide range of plumages exhibited by each individual species. This book covers in detail - and I do mean detail - the identification of all 43 "Holarctic" gulls. The species accounts are presented as a series of monographs, and while this means that to compare different species you have to flick between pages I can't think of a better was of presenting this depth of information. For each species there is an excellent text, a distribution map and numerous high quality colour illustrations and photographs covering all they key plumages, including hybrids. There are over 800 photographs in all (an incredible 46 of the humble Herring Gull alone), all with individual notes highlighting the specific features they show. Illustrations and photographs both have their pros and cons as identification aids - with this book you get the best of both worlds.

The standard of presentation is excellent, as usual with a Helm guide, and for the keen birder this book is a joy. A word of caution though - it's really not for beginners, who will be overwhelmed by the amount of detail and will miss the "side by side" comparisons of similar species that are a feature of good general field guides.


Excellent clear practical guide, 09 Oct 2004
This guide is beautifully illustrated with clear drawings and distribution maps. It is portable, robustly bound and is well printed. I wanted a pocket guide to the birds of Margarita Island which is just off the Venezuelan coast but not an official West Indian Island. The Steven Hilty book "Birds of Venezuela" is exhaustive but too heavy, so I annotated the Helm guide to the West Indies. This proved a successful compromise.
I hope one day to visit the West Indies proper and will take my copy of this West Indies guide with me. I will not take the Macmillan "Birds of the Eastern Caribbean" as the photos are nowhere near as good as the illustrations in this Helm guide.

Nice surprise, 04 Oct 2007
This guide, which I still prefer to consider as a "first-class" checklist includes 1273 species, all the non-passerine birds from South America (note that not the whole Neotropic region!)
After having the book "Birds of southern South America and Antarctica", I didnt have too much expectation, but now I can tell, they are not on the same level.

This book has an "extra" 33 pages family descreption, which is unusual in books like this. It has infos about behaviour and habit, and some intersting facts too. After come the text and the plates. The illustration are very very good, among the finest for neotropical birds ever published.
Maps are on the same page, but they are extremly small, and only good for overall idea of the birds distribution.

I dont know how good this book in the field, but if you have an interest on South American birds or you just love bird-art, this is a very good choice.

Slightly disappointing compared to available guides, 25 Sep 2007
Being a shorebird enthusiast, I have had this title in my sights for a while and planned to purchase it as soon as I could find a copy to look through. I have owned the old Helm guide since it came out but, for portability, in the field I tend to use Sibley or the Collins Bird Guide as a shorebird identification supplement to whatever national guide I am using (that is here in the Western Hemisphere). I felt it was about time I got my library up-to-date with this new volume which promised to supersede all my guides. However, when I finally managed to look over a copy I have to say I found it a little disappointing. For me at least, the illustrations do not match those of Killian Mullarney, Peter Hayman or David Sibley and the text does not seem to add much to the older Helm guide - indeed, I prefer that pioneering guide. It just shows how much care went into the preparation of those older guides - Shorebirds is 21 years old now and still hard to beat! This may be a personal view - and admittedly based on a short perusal - but I could not justify adding the book to my library.

Chris Sharpe, 25 September 2007. ISBN: 071365290X

Helm Field Guides: Waders of Europe, Asia and North America, 06 Feb 2006
Helm’s new field guide covers 125 species of waders in a little over 220 pages and is divided into three sections – Introduction, Waders at rest and Waders in flight.

The 25 page introduction covers many field guide standards such as bird topography, moult, plumage variation and behaviour. It includes a number of useful identification tips and is liberally scattered with Steve’s illustrations including some particularly pleasing ‘looser’ paintings depicting aspects of wader behaviour.

The waders at rest section consists of 45 double page spreads each covering two to four species. The text is concise and starts with a few ‘key ID features’ before covering behaviour, habitat, plumage and confusion species.

Most potential purchasers will look at the illustrations first and this is where the guide scores highly. The large image size and uncluttered design of the plates makes them a joy to browse through or grill intensely. Steve Message has done an excellent job at illustrating a very difficult group of birds and has produced some of the best field guide plates of recent times.

The in flight section gives upper- and under-wing illustrations and brief notes covering key ID features, flight action, voice, distribution and confusion species as well as distribution maps. It finishes with two appendices that tabulate upper- and under-part flight patterns.

This is a very good guide for anyone who wants to take their shorebirding to a new level and will certainly help you identify a Baird’s Sandpiper in Hampshire or a Bar-tailed Godwit in New Hampshire.

Great bird guide in a handy format, 22 Apr 2008
I'm from europe and do birdwatching in europe. I got this for my trip to Florida, and had a lot of use for it, as I stayed in an area with a lot of swamps and forests, and lots of wading birds. The book made it fast and easy to identify american birds, it points out characteristic details in flight and behavior, not only color and pattern, that might not always be visible. Sound descriptions are good and accurate. It is everything you'd expect from a modern bird book.

In addition, it is a thing of beauty, the illustrations are not only very informative, but also very beautiful. The text is also very interesting, even when not out in the field.

Get it, wether you live in eastern Northern America, or is just visiting!

A great book with a pesky fault, 08 Dec 1998
This field guide will enable you to see paintings of all of the birds that occur in the area. It also discusses (briefly) each bird. The paintings are excellent and the copy is quick and to the point. To pick at nits, though, the arrangement of the paintings is confusing. Not all birds in a specific family are illustrated on the same plate, and some are found pages away from the rest of their family. The logic seems to be that if the bird is found regularly in northern North America (the elegant trogon, for example) its picture does not need to run with the rest of its relatives. Close study of the guide can overcome this problem, however, making it an easy, economical way to pack the information of other guides into the field.

Bird Book, 16 May 1999
4 star book

A step above the rest, 02 May 1999
I have an older edition of this book and must say that it's the best field guide available. It's a true classic and is always the one that goes with me out in the field. There's nothing missing. The bird drawings are truly the best I've seen in a bird identification book. It's also the easiest to carry along when I go birding. A step above all of the others. Roger Tory Peterson truly produced an indispensable field guide.

Great for those new to bird watching, 04 Sep 1998
The detailed illustrations and text make identifying birds easy.

Coomon Birds of Egypt, 11 Apr 2008
Although not detailed enough for the serious twitcher this is an excellent book for the interested birder. Small enough to carry with you, it would easily fit into a large pocket or camera case, it offers a good insight into the birds of the Nile Valley and the Red Sea Coasts. Don't be put off by the odd format. It starts in English at the front and Arabic at the back but with a short section on where to see birds in Egypt, good quality coloured illustrations and a brief description of each bird's habitat this is all that one needs to identify most birds you would expect to see during a holiday in Egypt.

Witty and informative - the best birding book I've read, 02 Jan 2007
An entertaining and informative account of the race between three birders to beat the Big Year record in 1998. The Big Year is a competition to see the most species on the United States and Canada in a single calendar year. Mark Obmascik's book uses the diaries of the three twitchers as well as recollections from fellow birders as they pile on the air miles, criss-crossing the continent to hopefully see reported rarity and vagrant species.

Obmascik writes in a witty anecdotal style and really gets under the surface of the three otherwise very diverse individuals as they race, unwittingly at first, for the same prize. As well as the humour and entertainment value, his book is also very informative chronicling, for example, the history of man's discovery of bird migration as well as the introduction of new species to the US such as the Himalayan Snowcock.

The Big Year is an excellent, enlightening read and is highly recommended for anyone interested in birding or the psychology of those obsessed enough to travel the length of the country to possibly see a singe, new rare species.

great - but tough, 04 Jan 2009
This book is not for the faint-hearted. It goes into the different Holarctic species (and subspecies) of gulls in great depth.
I live in an inland county and don't often see gulls (apart from black-headed and common) on the ground. So in some ways it is way beyond what I need. But it is a superb reference book. And I'm glad to own it.
The sheer amount of detail and no. of drawings and photographs is breath-taking.
As with all bird identification the secret is to get to know the common species intimately first. So getting to grips with the argentatus and argenteus races of Herring gull is probably my next step. Then, who knows, I may get to the point of being able to pick out a Caspian, yellow-legged or even American herring gull from a mixed flock. If I don't, it won't be the fault of Olsen and Larsson!

Stunning!, 16 Jan 2007
This book won the "Birdwatch" book of the year award in 2004, and it certainly deserved it. Gulls can - if you get into them - pose a fascinating identification challenge, because of the wide range of plumages exhibited by each individual species. This book covers in detail - and I do mean detail - the identification of all 43 "Holarctic" gulls. The species accounts are presented as a series of monographs, and while this means that to compare different species you have to flick between pages I can't think of a better was of presenting this depth of information. For each species there is an excellent text, a distribution map and numerous high quality colour illustrations and photographs covering all they key plumages, including hybrids. There are over 800 photographs in all (an incredible 46 of the humble Herring Gull alone), all with individual notes highlighting the specific features they show. Illustrations and photographs both have their pros and cons as identification aids - with this book you get the best of both worlds.

The standard of presentation is excellent, as usual with a Helm guide, and for the keen birder this book is a joy. A word of caution though - it's really not for beginners, who will be overwhelmed by the amount of detail and will miss the "side by side" comparisons of similar species that are a feature of good general field guides.


Excellent clear practical guide, 09 Oct 2004
This guide is beautifully illustrated with clear drawings and distribution maps. It is portable, robustly bound and is well printed. I wanted a pocket guide to the birds of Margarita Island which is just off the Venezuelan coast but not an official West Indian Island. The Steven Hilty book "Birds of Venezuela" is exhaustive but too heavy, so I annotated the Helm guide to the West Indies. This proved a successful compromise.
I hope one day to visit the West Indies proper and will take my copy of this West Indies guide with me. I will not take the Macmillan "Birds of the Eastern Caribbean" as the photos are nowhere near as good as the illustrations in this Helm guide.

Nice surprise, 04 Oct 2007
This guide, which I still prefer to consider as a "first-class" checklist includes 1273 species, all the non-passerine birds from South America (note that not the whole Neotropic region!)
After having the book "Birds of southern South America and Antarctica", I didnt have too much expectation, but now I can tell, they are not on the same level.

This book has an "extra" 33 pages family descreption, which is unusual in books like this. It has infos about behaviour and habit, and some intersting facts too. After come the text and the plates. The illustration are very very good, among the finest for neotropical birds ever published.
Maps are on the same page, but they are extremly small, and only good for overall idea of the birds distribution.

I dont know how good this book in the field, but if you have an interest on South American birds or you just love bird-art, this is a very good choice.

Slightly disappointing compared to available guides, 25 Sep 2007
Being a shorebird enthusiast, I have had this title in my sights for a while and planned to purchase it as soon as I could find a copy to look through. I have owned the old Helm guide since it came out but, for portability, in the field I tend to use Sibley or the Collins Bird Guide as a shorebird identification supplement to whatever national guide I am using (that is here in the Western Hemisphere). I felt it was about time I got my library up-to-date with this new volume which promised to supersede all my guides. However, when I finally managed to look over a copy I have to say I found it a little disappointing. For me at least, the illustrations do not match those of Killian Mullarney, Peter Hayman or David Sibley and the text does not seem to add much to the older Helm guide - indeed, I prefer that pioneering guide. It just shows how much care went into the preparation of those older guides - Shorebirds is 21 years old now and still hard to beat! This may be a personal view - and admittedly based on a short perusal - but I could not justify adding the book to my library.

Chris Sharpe, 25 September 2007. ISBN: 071365290X

Helm Field Guides: Waders of Europe, Asia and North America, 06 Feb 2006
Helm’s new field guide covers 125 species of waders in a little over 220 pages and is divided into three sections – Introduction, Waders at rest and Waders in flight.

The 25 page introduction covers many field guide standards such as bird topography, moult, plumage variation and behaviour. It includes a number of useful identification tips and is liberally scattered with Steve’s illustrations including some particularly pleasing ‘looser’ paintings depicting aspects of wader behaviour.

The waders at rest section consists of 45 double page spreads each covering two to four species. The text is concise and starts with a few ‘key ID features’ before covering behaviour, habitat, plumage and confusion species.

Most potential purchasers will look at the illustrations first and this is where the guide scores highly. The large image size and uncluttered design of the plates makes them a joy to browse through or grill intensely. Steve Message has done an excellent job at illustrating a very difficult group of birds and has produced some of the best field guide plates of recent times.

The in flight section gives upper- and under-wing illustrations and brief notes covering key ID features, flight action, voice, distribution and confusion species as well as distribution maps. It finishes with two appendices that tabulate upper- and under-part flight patterns.

This is a very good guide for anyone who wants to take their shorebirding to a new level and will certainly help you identify a Baird’s Sandpiper in Hampshire or a Bar-tailed Godwit in New Hampshire.

Great bird guide in a handy format, 22 Apr 2008
I'm from europe and do birdwatching in europe. I got this for my trip to Florida, and had a lot of use for it, as I stayed in an area with a lot of swamps and forests, and lots of wading birds. The book made it fast and easy to identify american birds, it points out characteristic details in flight and behavior, not only color and pattern, that might not always be visible. Sound descriptions are good and accurate. It is everything you'd expect from a modern bird book.

In addition, it is a thing of beauty, the illustrations are not only very informative, but also very beautiful. The text is also very interesting, even when not out in the field.

Get it, wether you live in eastern Northern America, or is just visiting!

A great book with a pesky fault, 08 Dec 1998
This field guide will enable you to see paintings of all of the birds that occur in the area. It also discusses (briefly) each bird. The paintings are excellent and the copy is quick and to the point. To pick at nits, though, the arrangement of the paintings is confusing. Not all birds in a specific family are illustrated on the same plate, and some are found pages away from the rest of their family. The logic seems to be that if the bird is found regularly in northern North America (the elegant trogon, for example) its picture does not need to run with the rest of its relatives. Close study of the guide can overcome this problem, however, making it an easy, economical way to pack the information of other guides into the field.

Bird Book, 16 May 1999
4 star book

A step above the rest, 02 May 1999
I have an older edition of this book and must say that it's the best field guide available. It's a true classic and is always the one that goes with me out in the field. There's nothing missing. The bird drawings are truly the best I've seen in a bird identification book. It's also the easiest to carry along when I go birding. A step above all of the others. Roger Tory Peterson truly produced an indispensable field guide.

Great for those new to bird watching, 04 Sep 1998
The detailed illustrations and text make identifying birds easy.

Coomon Birds of Egypt, 11 Apr 2008
Although not detailed enough for the serious twitcher this is an excellent book for the interested birder. Small enough to carry with you, it would easily fit into a large pocket or camera case, it offers a good insight into the birds of the Nile Valley and the Red Sea Coasts. Don't be put off by the odd format. It starts in English at the front and Arabic at the back but with a short section on where to see birds in Egypt, good quality coloured illustrations and a brief description of each bird's habitat this is all that one needs to identify most birds you would expect to see during a holiday in Egypt.

Witty and informative - the best birding book I've read, 02 Jan 2007
An entertaining and informative account of the race between three birders to beat the Big Year record in 1998. The Big Year is a competition to see the most species on the United States and Canada in a single calendar year. Mark Obmascik's book uses the diaries of the three twitchers as well as recollec