Birds of Europe - Lars Jonsson (1 Viewer)

Is it just me or are the illustrations really confusing, like you can't always tell what picture is supposed to be what bird?

Take a look at page 262-263 of the hardback Helm version. Mediterranean gull and slender-billed gull. It has Black-headed gull stuck in the middle of the page, with the word 'winter' between it and what I presume is a winter Med gull. Where's the first winter standing illustration of the med gull? EDIT: I just saw the words '1st winter' beside the med gull.. Ok but its still often hard to fathom the illustrations.

Also, in bold type on page 263, you can read 'black-headed gull' then '1st winter'. It actually looks like a winter adult med gull. So what is that all about?

Then turn to page 264-265: Little gull and black-headed gull. You can see on the plate on page 265, in the middle, two flying gulls. If you didn't know, you wouldn't be able to say if both were blacked-headed gulls, or one was little and the other black-headed!

What is going on in this field guide? Does anyone else find this infuriating?

Encourages you to look closely and see the differences between the species.

Yeah, you're right, never noticed that before. The captions are all over the shop. On p.262 the words "Black-headed Gull 1st-winter" apply to the bird that's half off the left hand side of the page, but the winter Med Gull's rear end is between the caption and the pic. As TSM23 says, keeps you on your toes, don't want to be spoon-fed do we ?

I think this is the best field guide, and the one I always turn to first. I take your point about the labelling which can be confusing at times, though the examples you give of the flying Black-headed / Little Gulls on pages 264 / 265are obvious to me and not a problem.

Unfortunately the plates vary in standard. This is because some have been taken from an earlier work, for example the crakes on page 185 or the auks on 297, which are of poorer quality in my opinion.

However, when he gets it right, the plates are of far better standard than any other field guide and knocks spots of the highly regarded Collins guide (for example). What Lars Jonsson does particularly well is capture the jizz and character of the bird.

For example nobody has painted a better Firecrest (P455), Long-tailed Duck (P111), Blue Tit (P467), Long-tailed Tit (P469) and the stints are truely works of art (P222 - 229).

In truth though, no one book is good enough, that's why like most birders, I've got a bookcase full to overflowing with field guides and identification guides. I have a Poyser book which is 590 pages long and dedicated soley to the identification of the raptors of Europe and the Middle East (the same area as that covered by Jonsson). How can any field guide compete with that? Lars Johnsson allows 47 pages (more than most field guides) to the coverage of raptors. Not surprising then if some of the plates get a bit cramped, and the labelling gets difficult. Other guides get round the problem by making the images tiny.

What is going on in this field guide? Does anyone else find this infuriating?

Click to expand...

Just goes to show that nothing in life is perfect! It is however, IMHO the second best field guide available for Britain and Europe after the Collins guide. It might not be as complete as some fieldguides in its coverage for some species, but I would never be without it.

Remember too, that this is the work of one man. The Collins guide is a compilation of the work of several artists/writers.

Steve

Couldn't agree more, Jonsson is always the first book into the bag when I'm going on holiday. Collins goes in if there's room.