Doctor Twitchings
Active member
First of all congratulations to John Cantelo for not only being the first to submit a detailed review of this guide, but also on being 'spot on' with everything he mentioned.
I have been looking forward to seeing the 2nd Edition of the Collins Bird Guide ever since I heard there would be one - perhaps 8 years ago! It has been a long wait, but on the whole well worth it. Simply this is the book that everyone in Europe that is interested in Birds should own. It is by far the best field guide to European birds, and is far better than the 1st Edition. Anyone comparing this one with the first edition will quickly want to retire their old copy!
There are many plus points to this book, including: Overall size and design (it really is a beautiful book), Lars Svensson writing the text (a tad conservative but he would be my No.1 choice), superb artwork by Killian Mullarney and Zan Zetterstrom (making up a formidable team), 'a significent contribution' by the late great Peter Grant - in fact this edition is dedicated to his memory, more pages than the original, a huge amount of information between the covers, better and more 'crisper' printing, the 'stunning' quality of most of the plates, good layout and design with plates facing text, many new plates and many 'much improved' plates, better maps, more species and races covered, the calendar now printed in the introduction to Waders, and now the American passerines are up to the same standard as the rest of the book.
What we all want is a guide with acurate illustrations, and no other field guide to birds has illustrations to match this one in my opinion. In the first edition there were a few that were a little disappointing, but this book puts a lot right. Many of the plates have had a juggle, this has resulted in many given more space, other illustrations from the first edition reproduced bigger, others re-arranged differently on the same plate, and others placed along side more similar species. The new plates are really excellent, and my favourites are: Short-eared, Long-eared and Marsh Owl - such a perfect plate (three species illustrated exquisitely on the right hand side of the spread with plenty of 'breathing space' and text on the left hand side with the maps), Yellow-browed, Hume's Leaf, Pallas's, Dusky and Radde's Warbler is another prety much perfectly executed plate (and the Radde's is superb), Sparrowhawk and Goshawk (now having twice the space as in the 1st edition), the new illustrations for Red-breasted and Taiga Flycatcher, Chiffchaffs, Eagle Owl, the North American Thrushes, and Red-backed,
Isabelline, Turkestan and Brown Shrikes. But there is plenty more superb artwork to savour in this amazing book. Really pleased that now the treatment of the Gulls has been expanded, and we now have full treatments for American Herring, Caspian (hooray) and Armenian, while Baltic and Heuglin's get fuller treatment within Lesser Black-backed, and Yellow-legged has been given more space.
The vast majority of the plates are near perfect, but there are others that, in my opinion, could have been improved. Considering the very high standards of this guide I was surprised that the pages featuring Mallard, Red-legged Partridge, Little Ringed Plover, Bee Eater, Linnet, Trumpeter Finch and Yellowhammer were not given the make over. I was quite disappointed that the Redpolls were untouched, and surprised that there is still no illustration for sinensis Cormorant. The new plate featuring vagrant wildfowl is too cramped as still are the pages featuring Ross's Gull, Collared Dove and Hen Harrier. This second edition is about 50 pages thicker (although you hardly notice this), I would have liked to have seen a few more pages so that the few cramped plates could have been given a little more 'breathing space'. In my copy there are just a few plates that are printed a little too dark, the plate featuring Hen, Montagu's and a not very pallid Pallid Harrier being a good example.
Also, I'm not all that keen the sections at the rear of the book featuring Vagrants, Accidentals and Introduced / Escaped birds. The accidentals couldn't really be illustrated but I thought that the birds mentioned in the other two sections should at least have an illustration. In the Vagrants section Wilson's and Swinhoe's Snipe are glaring omissions (big white space on page), and we also lack drawings for Dwarf Bittern, Green-backed Heron, Willet, Morning Dove, Cedar Waxwing, Siberian Blue Robin, Eastern-crowned Warbler (ouch) and Scarlet Tanager. There are 12 species without an illustration in the 'Introduced and Escapes' section. The only typo I've come across so far is the Nile Walley Sunbird!
Despite my few minor grumbles, this really is one heck of a book. Every birder in the region will want to own one. The design, layout and quality of the artwork are so good. The price is very reasonable and represents good value for money. In fact you just can't go wrong buying this book as it is a pretty stunning achievement. Thanks to Lars, Killian, Dan, and the late Peter Grant, this region surely has THE best field guide.:t:
I have been looking forward to seeing the 2nd Edition of the Collins Bird Guide ever since I heard there would be one - perhaps 8 years ago! It has been a long wait, but on the whole well worth it. Simply this is the book that everyone in Europe that is interested in Birds should own. It is by far the best field guide to European birds, and is far better than the 1st Edition. Anyone comparing this one with the first edition will quickly want to retire their old copy!
There are many plus points to this book, including: Overall size and design (it really is a beautiful book), Lars Svensson writing the text (a tad conservative but he would be my No.1 choice), superb artwork by Killian Mullarney and Zan Zetterstrom (making up a formidable team), 'a significent contribution' by the late great Peter Grant - in fact this edition is dedicated to his memory, more pages than the original, a huge amount of information between the covers, better and more 'crisper' printing, the 'stunning' quality of most of the plates, good layout and design with plates facing text, many new plates and many 'much improved' plates, better maps, more species and races covered, the calendar now printed in the introduction to Waders, and now the American passerines are up to the same standard as the rest of the book.
What we all want is a guide with acurate illustrations, and no other field guide to birds has illustrations to match this one in my opinion. In the first edition there were a few that were a little disappointing, but this book puts a lot right. Many of the plates have had a juggle, this has resulted in many given more space, other illustrations from the first edition reproduced bigger, others re-arranged differently on the same plate, and others placed along side more similar species. The new plates are really excellent, and my favourites are: Short-eared, Long-eared and Marsh Owl - such a perfect plate (three species illustrated exquisitely on the right hand side of the spread with plenty of 'breathing space' and text on the left hand side with the maps), Yellow-browed, Hume's Leaf, Pallas's, Dusky and Radde's Warbler is another prety much perfectly executed plate (and the Radde's is superb), Sparrowhawk and Goshawk (now having twice the space as in the 1st edition), the new illustrations for Red-breasted and Taiga Flycatcher, Chiffchaffs, Eagle Owl, the North American Thrushes, and Red-backed,
Isabelline, Turkestan and Brown Shrikes. But there is plenty more superb artwork to savour in this amazing book. Really pleased that now the treatment of the Gulls has been expanded, and we now have full treatments for American Herring, Caspian (hooray) and Armenian, while Baltic and Heuglin's get fuller treatment within Lesser Black-backed, and Yellow-legged has been given more space.
The vast majority of the plates are near perfect, but there are others that, in my opinion, could have been improved. Considering the very high standards of this guide I was surprised that the pages featuring Mallard, Red-legged Partridge, Little Ringed Plover, Bee Eater, Linnet, Trumpeter Finch and Yellowhammer were not given the make over. I was quite disappointed that the Redpolls were untouched, and surprised that there is still no illustration for sinensis Cormorant. The new plate featuring vagrant wildfowl is too cramped as still are the pages featuring Ross's Gull, Collared Dove and Hen Harrier. This second edition is about 50 pages thicker (although you hardly notice this), I would have liked to have seen a few more pages so that the few cramped plates could have been given a little more 'breathing space'. In my copy there are just a few plates that are printed a little too dark, the plate featuring Hen, Montagu's and a not very pallid Pallid Harrier being a good example.
Also, I'm not all that keen the sections at the rear of the book featuring Vagrants, Accidentals and Introduced / Escaped birds. The accidentals couldn't really be illustrated but I thought that the birds mentioned in the other two sections should at least have an illustration. In the Vagrants section Wilson's and Swinhoe's Snipe are glaring omissions (big white space on page), and we also lack drawings for Dwarf Bittern, Green-backed Heron, Willet, Morning Dove, Cedar Waxwing, Siberian Blue Robin, Eastern-crowned Warbler (ouch) and Scarlet Tanager. There are 12 species without an illustration in the 'Introduced and Escapes' section. The only typo I've come across so far is the Nile Walley Sunbird!
Despite my few minor grumbles, this really is one heck of a book. Every birder in the region will want to own one. The design, layout and quality of the artwork are so good. The price is very reasonable and represents good value for money. In fact you just can't go wrong buying this book as it is a pretty stunning achievement. Thanks to Lars, Killian, Dan, and the late Peter Grant, this region surely has THE best field guide.:t:
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