Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
Thanks for this Melanie.
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Your most anticipated futures books (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Melanie
- Start date
Thanks for this Melanie.
John Cantelo
Well-known member
I recommend watching all of the authors lectures at the Virtual Bird Fair. Of particular interest to me (as I've been banging on about it since the original came out) was the confirmation that the Wildguides team are working on a guide to European birds based on their very successful 'Britain's Birds' by Hume et al which will be published in "a year or so". The comment comes near the end (22.06) of Rob Hume's talk at https://virtual.birdfair.org.uk/index.php/authors-saturday-britains-birds-by-rob-hume/
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That's good to hear that a Europe book is planned, John. Sadly the superb Collins Bird Guide is now so out of date with so many splits since the last edition not to mention so many changes to scientific names. Would love to see an updated Collins but have not heard of any plans to do so.
John Cantelo
Well-known member
Doesn't the latest edition of Collins cover most (all?) of the recent splits? I thought it did.
It'll be interesting to see how the WildGuides team handle the inevitable increase in species covered. The accounts of some 'European' vagrants to Britain (e.g. Booted Eagle) will need to be enlarged and even on a fairly conservative interpretation of 'Europe' room for c60 regular 'continental' species will need to be found with substantially more if a wider definition is used (such as including the Atlantic islands). I'd imagine a wider Western Palearctic scope (c200 more species) would mean too much of a compromise or too big a book. It'll be interesting to see how they handle these inevitable compromises. Personally, I'd get rid of ultra-vagrants to free up space and the 16-page conservation status details in the back. It'll be exciting to find out! The next project ought to be a handy pocketable guide to WP raptors ....
Some such as the Subalpine Warbler complex are treated as sub-species & Royal Tern has recently been split. Perhaps fewer than I thought, but so many scientific names have changed from ducks to a couple of the gulls, warblers & probably quite a few others.
Appreciate many will no doubt change again.
Appreciate many will no doubt change again.
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
I love the artwork in field guides, I find it really hard to enthuse about photo guides, regardless of the quality of photos or species involved, they just don't custard my rhubarb.
John Cantelo
Well-known member
I only have the most recent version as an app and that treats Subalpine as three species (although Royal Tern hasn't been split). Since it is a field guide and not a work on taxonomy, I think a new edition just to fall in with the latest scientific names can't really be justified.
John Cantelo
Well-known member
Generally I'd agree with you on this (assuming the artwork to be of the highest order) and aesthetically I'm far more enthusiastic about books like Fansie Peacock's marvelous 'Waders' (in my view a near perfect combination of superb artwork and informative text). However, I find there's a good deal of artistry in the digitally manipulated illustrations in 'Britain's Birds and, most importantly, with the wealth & variety of digital images now available, a huge degree of functionality (previously an Achille's heel of photoguides). As I'm wondering off the purpose of this thread I'll try to draw it back again by observing that with the multiplicity of images available and the clever manipulation of them, I'm far more engaged with and inclined to keenly anticipate photoguides than I was only a few years ago. It's also why I'm keenly anticipating the arrival of a book ("Flight Identification of European Passerines and Select Landbirds") whose artwork is entirely composed on a computer.
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
pbjosh
missing the neotropics
In general I wholly agree. Certainly for a field guide to a region and for passerines, art far surpasses photos.
However, I think that for gulls, tubenoses, and perhaps raptors, where ID can be so complex, I do quite like the best of the photographic guides (particularly Howell & Zufelt's new seabirds book and Olsen's gull book).
I should think that a really high quality photo guide showing molt and different plumages for shorebirds would be of value as well, though I don't know if there is one? I've always been underwhelmed by the O'Brien/Crossley/Karlson Shorebird Guide. On the subject - now that I'm moving back to Europe, I will certainly get a copy of Peacock's Waders - I have never heard anything but praise for it.
Royal Tern has been split by the IOC into American Royal Tern + the African form now West African Crested Tern..
John Cantelo
Well-known member
Peacock's book is focused on African waders so omits several European waders (Lapwing, Great Snipe & Woodcock for example) and treats some American and a few 'European' species (Snipe & Jack Snipe) rather briefly. However, it still gives excellent coverage to many species you'd encounter in Europe. A pity it hasn't been revised & re-issued to cover the missing American/European species (covering all waders would be great but would require a lot more work).
jurek
Well-known member
I am looking forward to this book. My understanding is, however, that Tomasz, remarkably, makes his artwork traditionally, possibly with an airbrush. The perfect appearance of computer graphics is his style.
Actually, I may be doing him injustice. Tomasz started making such art before computer graphics developed, so he didn't imitate it. Possibly scifi stories imagined that computers would produce such a smooth art in the future. Only people thought that such a smooth picture must be made using a computer.
There was also another wildlife artist in Poland, late Jerzy Desselberger, who developed a style of straightening and smoothing bird appearance to the point of a symbol. He also worked before the time of personal computers. He is known from several books and especially postage stamps. And was also a long-standing member of Polish Rarities Committee, like Tomasz is now.
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John Cantelo
Well-known member
Thanks for the clarification. His work is certainly remarkable.
CharleyBird
Well-known member
Springtime of senility & all that... browsing the local charity shops I happened on a quite enchanting book called
'The Birdwatchers' by Simon James.
Read it and still laughing inside, dug in my pocket for two quid.
For ages 4-6 and those still rather young at heart.
'The Birdwatchers' by Simon James.
Read it and still laughing inside, dug in my pocket for two quid.
For ages 4-6 and those still rather young at heart.
birdboybowley
Well-known member.....apparently so ;)
A surprise birthday copy of Lynx's All the Birds of the World was gifted to me today....very nice book actually. Have all the individual HBWs (which means on principal I won't pay them again for HBW Alive!) but it's great to have a volume with everything available within a few pages.....which brings me to my biggest niggle with the book: the bloody taxonomic order!!! AARGH! Passerines aren't too bad but poxy Non-passerines are a mare! See attached to get my meaning...
Other than that it's well laid out with a nice (but depressing at the same time) part-illustrated list of extinct birds.
Only other issue is that the paper used is fairly thin....can see the print thru pages and I'd imagine very easy to accidentally rip it too...so beware!
Other than that it's well laid out with a nice (but depressing at the same time) part-illustrated list of extinct birds.
Only other issue is that the paper used is fairly thin....can see the print thru pages and I'd imagine very easy to accidentally rip it too...so beware!
foresttwitcher
Virtually unknown member
Mine still hasn't arrived yet!
jurek
Well-known member
I received my copy of 'All the birds of the world'.
Overall a nice book. It is easy to spend half an hour or more browsing.
Low points are:
- Many pages are printed too dark, e.g. Common Kingfisher. Others are low quality, eg. Neotropical Cormorant has black feet merging with the black plumage. Sometimes the thin paper is see-through.
- Some illustrations are painfully too small, for example whistling ducks and scaups are barely 2,5 cm long, about three times smaller than the Song Sparrows. It would be much better to save space by avoiding the completely useless world's geographical maps at the end, and print the academical treatise about taxonomic names (often simply about the spelling) in smaller font.
- Religious discussions of the most recent taxonomy are a bit pointless, given that it is still evolving field, and also increasingly subjective, so the situation will change within months and years.
- The book is filled with ads, especially rather unsightly QR codes pointing to the Cornell internet library. There are also numerous logos etc., a bit like a dress of a pro sportsman.
Overall a nice book. It is easy to spend half an hour or more browsing.
Low points are:
- Many pages are printed too dark, e.g. Common Kingfisher. Others are low quality, eg. Neotropical Cormorant has black feet merging with the black plumage. Sometimes the thin paper is see-through.
- Some illustrations are painfully too small, for example whistling ducks and scaups are barely 2,5 cm long, about three times smaller than the Song Sparrows. It would be much better to save space by avoiding the completely useless world's geographical maps at the end, and print the academical treatise about taxonomic names (often simply about the spelling) in smaller font.
- Religious discussions of the most recent taxonomy are a bit pointless, given that it is still evolving field, and also increasingly subjective, so the situation will change within months and years.
- The book is filled with ads, especially rather unsightly QR codes pointing to the Cornell internet library. There are also numerous logos etc., a bit like a dress of a pro sportsman.
John Cantelo
Well-known member
Nor mine & it's only a week to my birthday (a big one!).
