John Cantelo
Well-known member
My copy of this monumental book (in every sense of the word) arrived this morning the day after publication (unlike 'All the Birds of the World' for which I had to wait for almost two weeks!). It is such an important work that I feel it deserves a thread of its own. My initial impressions are overwhelmingly positive, It's well-produced, beautifully designed and enhanced by gorgeous artwork (disappointingly, though, there's no list of artists & the birds that they illustrated). Another huge positive is that Turkey and European Russia are now included. Clearly, the progress in analysing data and presenting the fruits in map form since the original in 1997 has been enormous. The main maps are large and most species have three maps (abundance, breeding evidence/possibility of occurrence and 'change'), scarcer species have two and newly covered species (i.e. from Russia or Turkey) one. The text is necessarily concise but seems very well done and complements the maps well pointing out any deficiencies or problems. The taxonomy is well up to date which has caused some problems with species that weren't 'split' when the earlier atlas appeared but this has been handled deftly. I was though, disappointed that the division between Hooded & Carrion Crows wasn't mapped (the two being 'lumped'). Whichever way you look at it the tome's a terrific benchmark deserving of the highest accolades.