Books : Birds of Europe, Russia, China, and Japan: Passerines: Tyrant Flycatchers to Buntings (Princeton Illustrated Checklists)
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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 598
EAN num: 9780691133720
ISBN number: 0691133727
Label: Princeton University Press
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 240
Printing Date: August 06, 2007
Publishing house: Princeton University Press
Sale Popularity Level: 484038
Studio: Princeton University Press
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
This is the very first of two field guides illustrating and describing all of the approximately 1,800 bird species found in the Palearctic--the huge region that includes Europe, Asia north of the Himalayas, and Africa north of the Sahara. This area spans the countries of the former Soviet Union, all of the Russian Arctic, China, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, and the Middle East excluding the Gulf countries. This very first volume covers all the passerines (perching birds, from tyrant flycatchers to buntings) or songbirds and will soon be followed by a companion guide to the nonpasserines (divers to woodpeckers). These volumes are the very first and only field guides for many parts of the area covered, and mark the very first time all of these birds have been included in a single pair of books.
This very first volume covers every passerine species and subspecies in the area, in every adult plumage--all illustrated and described by Norman Arlott, a leading bird artist who has many years of field experience with these species.
- Colour plates of all field-identifiable species, including subspecies and colour morphs
- Succinct facing-page text concentrates on key field-identification features, including voice
- Detailed distribution map for each species
- Well-researched and accessible
- Handy format-the ideal field guide
- Essential for anyone interested in Eurasian birds
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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This is indeed an excellent (visual) field guide apart from the odd mapping location. Text is indeed minimal, but it is made up for in excellent art and its easy-to-bird-watch pocket-size; Norman Arlott is one of the best bird artists in the world and his plates are stunning. However, people in North America buying this book need to take heed that south-eastern China, Shanghai-southwards, is not included, as it falls within the Oriental Avifaunal Region. The European published version of this book is more aptly named "Birds of the Palearctic - Passerines."
Rated by buyers -
This book's real name should have been "Passerine of the Palearctic". It might not be as commercial, but it would clearly show the amazing work that has been done by Normann Arlott in bringing toghether, in an uniformised way, all the birds of the northern Old World (a second volume covering the non-passerine is in preparation). And mind you, his Palearctic approach includes all the islands (from Cap Verde to Riyuku), the whole Arabic penisula and best of all, the whole Himalayas, including the southern slopes towards India and Burma... European and Japanese birders, who are spoilt with excellent but more local field-guides, can finally get a real appreciation of the species diversity in each group, and it's a delight!
True, there are still many way's to improve such a work. Having the (very interesting) map's at the end of the volume is not optimal, the treatement of subspecific diversity is some time surprisingly incomplete, the drawings, while acurate and perfect for comparison inside the groups, are typical of the author's style which is slightly stiff in my view, and there is minimal information on field ID (nothing on juveniles). But this information is available in many other books, and does not deter from the appeal of this volume, who is much-more then a check-list and brings together for the very first time and for a very reasonable price most of what Marco Polo would have needed, had he been a birder...
So whether you plan to travel or are still in the dream phase, sit down, relax, and wander through the plates, recognising the species you know (or even have seen) and discovering the (many) others, that are still waiting out there to be observed, appreciated and protected!
Rated by buyers 
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This book is handy in picturing many species side-by-side that don't occur together in any other field guide. The illustrations are quite nice as well, though small and almost all in perfect profile (which can obscure some field marks such as coronal stripes). The maps in the back are easy to interpret, though country lines are missing, making it impossible to pinpoint the edges of ranges on a real map. It's also very small and easy to carry in the field. The title "Illustrated Checklist" is a very good description of what this book offers.
A true field guide or identification handbook it is not. The text offers virtually no useful identification details, rather the few words on the page opposite the pictured species briefly describe only behavior, voice, and habitat. To further distance itself from being an identification guide, as few plumages as possible are depicted, e.g. the only non-adult plumage in the entire book is that of a first-summer Hooded Wheatear.
Having the maps placed in the back of the book and numbered according to plate and species number is hugely awkward.
We used this book while birding on Saint Paul Island, Alaska mostly to browse the maps and dream about what long-distance migrants might be possible as vagrants on U.S. soil. Or to see approximately how far away past vagrants had to come to make it as far as Alaska (such as Wood Warbler or Sedge Warbler). But after our having found something as straightforward as even Yellow-browed Warbler, this book was not sufficient to confirm that it wasn't possibly some other Phylloscopus, and we required more detailed information found in the usual field guides.
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