ID Handbook of European Birds - thoughts, comments thread (2 Viewers)

[Hans Martin Høiby]

Mine arrived y'day afternoon from my national supplier. And this is the Princeton Univ. hardcopy version (I see there are some hints to other options in between). Curious I just opened the Tattler page where the blue-fringed pics should occur, and they do. Thumb-sliding thru both volumes there are no evidence of bad binding as shown from others, but there are some blue-fringes other places. I guess bad printing can't be blamed there, rather during 'original' editing process? I for sure don't think I'll be overly frustrated or disappointed - there is obviously a wealth of informative pictures here.

 

[Weasel1]

I agree...Bluish fringes aside, I'm very pleased with my copies...definitely worth the money and the wait.

 

[Harry Stottle]

Just received and checked my copy. There are no bad cutting, folding or binding errors, but a great many of the birds have blue tints.
They are mostly where the bird should be white or grey and frequently when open wings are shown. Very disappointing.
Otherwise, it is a useful guide.
I now need a pair of tinted spectacles that change blue to white and grey - does anyone know of a supplier?.
If your favourite colour is blue --- this is the book for you!

 

[Jack Dawe]

My copy has now arrived. I have some well-flattened, diagonal creases on three adjacent leaves (pp.427-432 - see photo), but they are at the edge of the pages and don't affect the images, so I can live with it. I'm not sure that the blue cast to the Tattlers is just a reflection from the water. As Harry Stottle notes, many of the greys have a bluish cast, e.g. the Whitethroats (both Greater and Lesser) and the underwing of Mistle Thrush, although I wonder whether a colour balance problem in the photos might be partly to blame. Again, for me it's not serious enough to present a real problem. As for the work itself, I have to say it's totally awesome.

 

[Southern Viking]

Got mine delivered just now. No creases and page 192 is fine. Some blueish tinge on a few greys as others said but doesn't bother me. Really excellent looking books. Pleasantly surprised at the inclusion of eg. Sulphur-bellied Warbler. £73.59 and delivery less than 24 hours later is a bargain (it's gone up 50p on Amazon since then).

I'm a very happy chappy.

 

[Steve Lister]

My phone call to Birdguides yesterday worked wonders: I made it clear that I was unhappy with their communications, misleading to say the least, and that I would cancel if they had not sorted things by today. Within hours I had a delivery notification for today from DPD, and then a one hour slot identified this morning, very helpful.

But this was DPD next day delivery, dispatched just yesterday by Wiley's Books in Bognor Regis. They are Birdguides' suppliers for this title. I had been led to believe that my order was in transit a fortnight ago - if it was then that consignment has disappeared into the ether somewhere.

Relieved to say that apart from the blue tinges my two books seem free of production errors, and they do look good. The only grumble I have so far is that some of the Caspian Gulls don't look like they did twenty years ago and it looks like the bar has dropped as to what is a pure one and what is a hybrid. Or is it just me being too fussy?

 

[Southern Viking]

Honestly I'm not good enough on gulls to answer the question on Casps. The plate on Iberian Green Woodpeckers seems pretty good though I thought, Ironically no mention (unless I've somehow missed it) of call, which I thought sounded pretty different before I even got on to one visually. The sound ID series do calls though and I wouldn't expect it from here.

Oh and another thing I just noticed - divers, not loons and it's Slavonian

 

[foresttwitcher]

Mine was delivered this evening, as predicted by the carrier. Very nice books. No apparent page / binding / trimming issues on a quick look. Blue tinge on some grey shades and whites a bit disappointing (one of the pictures each of Red Kite, Snow Bunting, Wood Warbler, Lesser Grey Shrike in addition to Tattler) - but I guess I'll get used to it. Overall looks to be very useful and a tour de force to produce.

 

[Andy Lakin]

Apart from the odd errors in the publishing i .e colour shades and the odd creased page I haven't seen many complaints about the actual text. Obviously the two books were a massive undertaking and even the excellent Collins guide had a fair list of errors with a thread on here listing them. I can imagine that there will be future editions same as the Collins guide so I can't see the odd printing error affecting any resale value as obviously older editions fetch less money.

Is it just me that has been won over to actual photographs as opposed to illustrations. One aspect that is particularly useful is the annotations detailing the minute details that are often very hard to pick out with optics but doable from the selection of excellent images photographed nowadays.

 

[Southern Viking]

Barbary Reed Warbler and Amur Red-rumped Swallow are very intertesting inclusions too

 

[Jack Dawe]

One thing I don't like is the indexing. Initially I couldn't find either Blue Tit or Treecreeper. I eventually found them indexed under 'E'. (Treecreeper is also under 'N'.)

 

[Jos Stratford]

One thing I don't like is the indexing. Initially I couldn't find either Blue Tit or Treecreeper. I eventually found them indexed under 'E'. (Treecreeper is also under 'N'.)

How can they be under 'E'? Is it a mistake or some strange obscure system?

 

[Jack Dawe]

How can they be under 'E'? Is it a mistake or some strange obscure system?

"Eurasian Blue Tit". etc. What the logic is of not indexing all the tits, terns, and so on together under their family names escapes me.

 

[Jos Stratford]

"Eurasian Blue Tit". What the logic is of not indexing all the tits, terns, etc. together under their family names escapes me.

Ah yes, didn't think of the obvious one 😅

 

[Melanie]

Yesterday I've got an e-Book-Version of this book at DeGruyter (for free via my Wikipedia account). Interesting that they have include the Northern Bald Ibis among the non-native birds.

 

[Melanie]

I've cancelled my order at Amazon and made a new order at Ebay 1,5 weeks ago. Today I've got the print copy though for 10 euros more than at Amazon but better than wait until November.

 

[david kelly]

I received my replacement copies from NHBS yesterday. I am very happy with NHBS customer service. They have kept me informed and have been very responsive whenever I contacted them.

David

 

[Weasel1]

A quick question about the bluish tint on certain birds, is this in all copies or just certain runs of the books?

 

[Steve Gantlett]

Mine was delivered this evening, as predicted by the carrier. Very nice books. No apparent page / binding / trimming issues on a quick look. Blue tinge on some grey shades and whites a bit disappointing (one of the pictures each of Red Kite, Snow Bunting, Wood Warbler, Lesser Grey Shrike in addition to Tattler) - but I guess I'll get used to it. Overall looks to be very useful and a tour de force to produce.

My BG copies finally arrived from Wileys yesterday. I have no complaints about the delay, just about the lack of information from BG. Anyway, I've got them now and so hopefully will everybody else, as obviously another delivery has come to Wiley.
Anyway: absolutely fantastic books and congratulations to the team.
Not a problem, but I also see blue tinges to all the species listed by foresttwitcher, except for Snow Bunting where I can't really see it. But I do see Eastern Bonelli's Warbler has a blue belly on p768, so that should make it easy to identify

 

[James Jobling]

My wife ordered the ID Handbook of European Birds on 6th August (for £65) as a birthday surprise for me. Both volumes arrived today (missing my birthday, but I had no problem with that). Not being a fan of photographic bird guides and reviewing earlier comments on this thread I was slightly alarmed as to what might be in store. Would I suffer clipped pages, creased pages, and the cerulean wash? What an eye-opener! The pages and printing are pristine, with the merest rare whisp of blue, and the texts and multitude of photographs are comprehensive and accurate. I was blown away by the treatment of waders (my favourite group)! Now I am converted to photographic guides, although I doubt any others will compete with these superb volumes. As a library or reference resource they outstrip all that have gone before, and beautifully complement the Collins Birdguide. Happily, I am at ease with generic names, otherwise I might become mildly irritated by the indexes (a minor caveat). Well done, Nils and Marc and the Team.