Handbook of Western Palearctic Birds vs. Birds of the Western Palearctic Concise Edition (3 Viewers)

[tsatziq]

I've been pondering about buying one of these books:

1. The Handbook of Western Palearctic Birds (Shirihai & Svensson)
2. The Western Palearctic Birds Concise Edition (Snow & Perrins)

The WPB (Snow & Perrins) is quite old. Is there any point in buying it over the HWPB?

I tried googling for similar discussion, but the names of the books are so similar, it is difficult to find anything!

 

[Richard Prior]

See this thread for further thoughts on your query:​

Book recommendation needed: best additional book to Collins bird guide for more in-depth information​

 

[Mono]

Link to thread mentioned above
Hi everyone,

Book recommendation needed: best additional book to Collins bird guide for more in-depth information

 

[Mike Earp]

I've been pondering about buying one of these books:

1. The Handbook of Western Palearctic Birds (Shirihai & Svensson)
2. The Western Palearctic Birds Concise Edition (Snow & Perrins)

The WPB (Snow & Perrins) is quite old. Is there any point in buying it over the HWPB?

I tried googling for similar discussion, but the names of the books are so similar, it is difficult to find anything!

Shirihai & Svensson is much more recent but covers only passerines. Snow & Perrins is comprehensive but now very dated.

 

[Richard Prior]

I find both useful, it depends on what information I’m looking for at any specific time.

 

[Andy Adcock]

I tried googling for similar discussion, but the names of the books are so similar, it is difficult to find anything!

Search using the ISBN.

The Handbook of Western Palearctic Birds (Shirihai & Svensson)

978-0713645712

The Western Palearctic Birds Concise Edition (Snow & Perrins)

978-0198540991

This website is also good

BookFinder.com: New & Used Books, Rare Books, Textbooks

www.bookfinder.com

 

[Melanie]

Snow and Perrins has plates with illustrations
Shirihai and Svensson has lots of photographes

 

[ANK]

Just to clarify - the objectives of the two books are totally different:

Snow & Perrins is the summary ("concise edition") of the opus magnum of British ornithology "Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic" published between 1977 - 1994, editior Stanley Cramp, and deals with natural history (habitat, breeding, food, behavior etc.).
The distribution and population figures are of course no longer accurate (and were already out of date when they were published) but the life history facts are still valid (e.g. the number of eggs per clutch has not changed since then ).

The Shirihai & Svensson on the other side is a pure identification guide.

 

[Brian H.]

Some details of the above are a bit ambiguous, making it unclear whether data in BWP itself are well out of date, or whether this applies to the Concise Edition of 1998. All the population and distribution sections in the latter were complete revisions of those in BWP, and all maps were redrawn. Obviously data from 1998 is today 'out of date' but definitely not as much as data from (e.g.) 1977! Many colour plates are also new.

 

[KiHu]

Just to clarify - the objectives of the two books are totally different:

Snow & Perrins is the summary ("concise edition") of the opus magnum of British ornithology "Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic" published between 1977 - 1994, editior Stanley Cramp, and deals with natural history (habitat, breeding, food, behavior etc.).
The distribution and population figures are of course no longer accurate (and were already out of date when they were published) but the life history facts are still valid (e.g. the number of eggs per clutch has not changed since then ).

The Shirihai & Svensson on the other side is a pure identification guide.

I am curious about different versions of BWP, in case you have more information on them.There appear to be 2 different editions of "Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic". I believe the first editions were published in 1977 to 1983, and have pale-colored dust jackets, whereas the second editions were published in 1992 to 2001 and have brightly colored dust jackets with different illustrations. Can you tell me if there are any differences between these 2 sets, other than the dust jackets? Are the second ones updated in any other way? Thanks!

 

[Butty]

Welcome to BF.
There's quite some confusion here. The comments above largely explain things. In summary...

"Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic". I believe the first editions were published in 1977 to 1983, and have pale-colored dust jackets

This is a massive work, published in 9 volumes, 1977-94. There was only ever one edition. It was produced in two imprints concurrently: Oxford University Press (with pretty jackets) and RSPB (with dreary pale pastel jackets); their contents are identical. Commonly known as BWP.

second editions were published in 1992 to 2001 and have brightly colored dust jackets with different illustrations

I'm guessing that you refer here to The Birds of the Western Palearctic, Concise Edition, 2 vols, 1997 or thereabouts. Commonly known as Concise BWP. The origin and scope of this work are described in comments above - but it is not a 2nd edition of BWP.

 

[KiHu]

Welcome to BF.
There's quite some confusion here. The comments above largely explain things. In summary...

This is a massive work, published in 9 volumes, 1977-94. There was only ever one edition. It was produced in two imprints concurrently: Oxford University Press (with pretty jackets) and RSPB (with dreary pale pastel jackets); their contents are identical. Commonly known as BWP.

I'm guessing that you refer here to The Birds of the Western Palearctic, Concise Edition, 2 vols, 1997 or thereabouts. Commonly known as Concise BWP. The origin and scope of this work are described in comments above - but it is not a 2nd edition of BWP.

Thank you very much for this clarification, it is exactly what I wanted to know. I apologize for any confusion on my part, it was simply a lack of knowing about the history of the published works.