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Britain's Birds 2nd Edition (1 Viewer)

If anybody receives a copy, an interesting test of how improved this second edition is would be to work through my comments on the gulls section (post #40 here: https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=3442580) and identify which ones have been addressed. Any volunteers?

Your wish is my command ....

I'd make some general points regarding the coverage of gulls and more generally. The crisper, brighter printing as made it easier to see details on original photos and a number of better photos have replaced the less helpful ones. Beside the birds dates are given either to indicate when the photo was taken (or perhaps when the plumage might be seen). As already noted a symbol has been added to show years to maturity. the moult sequence double page has been redesigned for the better. The sequence used is, I feel, more intuitive.

Black-headed Gull
- neither of the at-rest first-winters are very representative, being quite faded unlike typical midwinter birds with much more prominent dark markings
- no change in photos
- the patchy-hooded bird is labelled as a first-summer, which I'm sure it is, but moulting adults look like this too (making it a "false friend")
- no change
- Flight shot of the adult summer bird shows heavy shade on the underwing - surely a better photo of one of Britain's most common species could be found? (similar issues with adult Little Gull and first-summer Sabine’s Gull on p117, Lesser Black-backed Gull on p119)
- no change but I’d argue these features in the original were reasonably both on the main plate & on the small gulls in flight reference page (and assisted by better printing)
- there is no photo of a late summer adult moulting its outer primaries, showing that distinctive double black dot on the leading edge of the wing, which catches out novice birders who think it must be something unusual
- there’s a new photo of an adult in heavy moult in flight on page of moult in gulls but I’m not sure that it shows the feature to which you refer.

Mediterranean Gull
- No first-summer or second-summer shown
- no change in photos
- Both flight shots of first-winters taken in poor light (cf much better photo in Crossley)
- no change in photos on main page but new & better one on the small gulls in flight reference page
- All three flight-shots of adults have quite stretched wings – why not one with less stretched wings showing the Barn Owl-like rounded wingtip that is so different from any pose a Black-headed Gull is ever seen in
- no change in photos

Kittiwake
- No first-summer
- photo of first summer in flight added plus wing of 2nd winter & head of first winter added
- Adult summer doesn’t show the contrast between mid-grey of mantle/innerwing and paler grey of primaries well
- better printing of same photo on main page makes this feature more obvious as does a new photo on on the small gulls in flight reference page
- No photo showing just how distinctively translucent white the primaries of adults are when viewed from below
- not shown

Little Gull
- No first-summer or second-winter
- not shown
- No size comparison against Black-headed Gull
- in both editions the small gulls in flight reference page shows the size difference (although not so well in the new edition as they’re not close together)

Bonaparte’s Gull
- No at-rest first-winter or adult winter
- no change

Common Gull
- Only one very young juvenile; older juvenile, which can be confusingly similar to juvenile Med Gulls on the deck, not shown
- no change
- Only one at-rest first-winter when this is this species’ most variable plumage
- no change
- No first-summer
- no change

Ring-billed Gull
- Only one at-rest first-winter when this is this species’ most variable plumage
- no change

Lesser Black-backed Gull / Herring Gull
- The juvenile gulls on p121 and p127 captioned as Lesser Black-backed Gull are far from classic individuals (I wouldn’t be happy ruling out Herring gull on these two until I saw them fly – would anyone else? If so, what features am I missing that gives you that confidence?). If the purpose is to warn beginners off from making uncautious identifications of juvenile gulls, then that’s admirable, but a majority of individual Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls in these plumages are readily identifiable at rest and it would have been good to show these as well (Ok, there is a juvenile Herring, but it’s in a pose that fails to highlight its most useful ID features, and I can’t find any photos of birds anywhere in the book that look like the typical juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls that are plentiful at this time of the year at the weir five minutes way from my house).
- there’s new photo replacing the one originally shown p121 although I can’t say it meets your exacting standards I think it’s better (as is the flight shot opposite)
- No hybrid Herring x Lesser Black-backed Gulls shown
- No hybrid Glaucous x Herring
- neither covered in the new version

Iceland Gull / Glaucous Gull
- No at-rest adult Glaucous without head-streaking, and no at-rest Iceland with – another “false friend”
- neither covered in the new version; Iceland Gull photos unchanged but three of the Glaucous Gull photos are new – these cover ‘adult non-breeding’ (replacing ‘adult winter’), ‘second winter’ and third summer replacing one of third winter
- Repeated reference to Iceland and Glaucous Gulls in “first-winter”, which is now generally accepted as an anachronistic terms for this pair
- now refered to as ‘juvenile/first winter’ birds

Great Black-backed Gull

- No at-rest first-winter
- no change in photos but the ‘juvenile ‘ of the original in now called ‘first winter’

Yellow-legged Gull
- Just one at-rest first-winter and no at-rest juvenile
- all photos the same except ‘adult summer’ replaced by new photo labelled ‘adult breeding’
- No variation in adult appearance shown
- see above
- No at-rest older immature birds shown
- see above

Caspian Gull
- No at-rest older immature birds shown
- new photos of adult, flying third winter & flying adult but no additional at rest photos

I fear that a laridophile like yourself will be disappointed but for a pedestrian birder like me I think book manages a good balance between useful coverage and the constraints of producing a book that is remotely portable. I think that the only way to attain the sort of coverage you'd like would only be possible if the book was a lot larger or ultra-rarities were excluded (which I think would disappoint far more.

I hope this helps. Over the next few days I hope to go over the thread on the original edition and check the new version against the errors/concerns raised.
***
 
More errors that were pointed out in the original thread which have been corrected using new photos include wrongly attributed juv Audouin's Gull (which also has a couple of new photos & corrected ages), juv Little Ringed Plover (actually RP), first winter Common Sandpiper (which was actually Spotted Sandpiper), first winter Richard's Pipit (actually a Tawny Pipit) & juv Serin (actually a juvenile Citril Finch). Better coverage of Pied/White wagtail in a two page spread including juv. More accurate maps for Balearic & Cory's Sheawater.
 
Plate on hybrid ducks remains the same but there's a new page of exotic wildfowl (although with too few images) and the head & chest of a domestic Mallard creeps in to the photos of that species
 
I could have saved myself a lot of bother if I'd noticed that on the frontispiece of the new edition below the names of the writers/photographers the words "Consultant Chris Batty" now appears so I think we can be pretty certain that all of the questionable photos, captions, etc noted in the original thread have been replaced or corrected. I was very impressed by the original guide (although not perhaps as critical as I ought to have been). Although I still find some of the maps less accurate than I'd like and recognise that some perfectionists may still winkle out things to decry, I believe that this is probably as good a photographic guide to Britain's birds as we'll ever get. I still hope that a European guide based in this book will be published in the fullness of time even if that means some extreme rarities have to go AWOL. So should you buy the new version? Well, with the old one you should be able to identify most of the birds you see and in reality this new version won't make a huge difference. However, in my view the many minor changes across different aspects of the book combine to make it worth the relatively minor expense. I'll try to say more about those changes anon if it would be helpful.
 
Your wish is my command ....

I'd make some general points regarding the coverage of gulls and more generally. The crisper, brighter printing as made it easier to see details on original photos and a number of better photos have replaced the less helpful ones. Beside the birds dates are given either to indicate when the photo was taken (or perhaps when the plumage might be seen). As already noted a symbol has been added to show years to maturity. the moult sequence double page has been redesigned for the better. The sequence used is, I feel, more intuitive.

<snip>
I fear that a laridophile like yourself will be disappointed but for a pedestrian birder like me I think book manages a good balance between useful coverage and the constraints of producing a book that is remotely portable. I think that the only way to attain the sort of coverage you'd like would only be possible if the book was a lot larger or ultra-rarities were excluded (which I think would disappoint far more.

I hope this helps. Over the next few days I hope to go over the thread on the original edition and check the new version against the errors/concerns raised.
***

Thanks for this John, much appreciated. Based on this, I probably won’t buy this edition, but wait for a future one instead.

Just one thing: the reason I chose to analyse the gulls was that I didn’t have time to review the whole book so felt I could conclude something about the overall gap between this book and the “ideal” photographic guide by doing a deep-dive into a family I know well. My thinking was that if I found lots of deficiencies in the gulls, a warbler person would find a similar number among the warblers, a raptor person among the raptors etc. I’m aware that one could argue that gulls are unrepresentative of birds as a whole, of course, but my point is that I wasn’t specifically looking for a book that went out of its way specifically to please gull nerds.

My general argument still stands: the utility value of a photo of an adult Herring x Lesser Black-backed Gull hybrid (for example) to the average user of this book is orders of magnitudes higher than that of any plumage of Audouin’s Gull.
 
Thanks for this John, much appreciated. Based on this, I probably won’t buy this edition, but wait for a future one instead.

Just one thing: the reason I chose to analyse the gulls was that I didn’t have time to review the whole book so felt I could conclude something about the overall gap between this book and the “ideal” photographic guide by doing a deep-dive into a family I know well. My thinking was that if I found lots of deficiencies in the gulls, a warbler person would find a similar number among the warblers, a raptor person among the raptors etc. I’m aware that one could argue that gulls are unrepresentative of birds as a whole, of course, but my point is that I wasn’t specifically looking for a book that went out of its way specifically to please gull nerds.

My general argument still stands: the utility value of a photo of an adult Herring x Lesser Black-backed Gull hybrid (for example) to the average user of this book is orders of magnitudes higher than that of any plumage of Audouin’s Gull.

You're a hard man to please, Steve.

I don't think the level of detail and comprehensiveness you seem to want is possible if the book is to remain remotely portable. I suspect that the in-depth coverage that you'd prefer is only practically viable in a specialist guide devoted to single group of birds. I’m one of those who'd tend to argue that gulls, with their multiple plumages, tendency to hybridise etc are indeed unrepresentative and make for an unduly harsh judgement of the book's overall merits. For every person wanting to delve into the complexities of Herring x Lesser Black-backed Gull hybrids (and I've headache just thinking about it) there are as many or more (I'd guess) preferring coverage of Audouin’s Gull. Compromises always have to be made (comprehensiveness/size/price/etc) so I don't think it's likely that any future version will meet your exacting standards.

Although I think that there's a good argument for ditching all species that have occurred fewer than 10 times and the worthy conservation status details in the back to make room for more details in the main texts and more photos this remains in my view a first rate guide. The more that I dip into this new version the more that I see things that I like. The headline news is that it covers a number of additional species but I think the more important news is the book's improved detail, layout and design across the board. Better coverage of the Stonechat and R-b/Isabelline/Brown Shrike complexes is come to mind. I'm gradually trying to put together a review with photos comparing plates etc for my blog and will post here anon when I'm done.
 
You're a hard man to please, Steve.

I don't think the level of detail and comprehensiveness you seem to want is possible if the book is to remain remotely portable. I suspect that the in-depth coverage that you'd prefer is only practically viable in a specialist guide devoted to single group of birds. I’m one of those who'd tend to argue that gulls, with their multiple plumages, tendency to hybridise etc are indeed unrepresentative and make for an unduly harsh judgement of the book's overall merits. For every person wanting to delve into the complexities of Herring x Lesser Black-backed Gull hybrids (and I've headache just thinking about it) there are as many or more (I'd guess) preferring coverage of Audouin’s Gull. Compromises always have to be made (comprehensiveness/size/price/etc) so I don't think it's likely that any future version will meet your exacting standards.

The perfect guide, wouldn't have Gulls or Geese in at all......:t:
 
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