A field guide to the rare birds of Britain and Europe

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Lewington I, & P. Alström & P. Colston 1991. A field guide to the rare birds of Britain and Europe. HarperCollins, London. 448 pp. ISBN 0-00-219917-3.

Klaas Eigenhuis in Dutch Birding 1992, 14(2):58-59. This is the first field guide in Europe that deals exclusively with rare birds. It is called 'a book for the keen birdwatcher'. New up-to-date editions are to be expected every 2-3 years. The species covered are true vagrants in Europe except those that have occured only on Malta as well as very rare breeding birds in Europe that are not seen in large numbers on migration. Nearctic species that have reached Greenland, Madeira or the Canary Islands are said to be briefly mentioned as potential vagrants to Europe but I could not find examples. Little Blue Egretta caerulea and Tricolored Herons E trocolor, however, are both fully covered because they occur in the azores only. Some species are mentioned because they resemble other included species, eg, Indian Pond heron Ardeola grayi or Louisiana Watertrush Seiurus motacilla. Yet, other species are in the book because there has been a European claim, like Siberian White Crane Grus leucogeranus. The autors state that some earlier records are perhaps now unacceptable. This could certainly be the case with Europe's only Dark Canting Goshawk Melierax metabates, a recors in Soain which, in my opinion, refers to a pale-morph Booted Eagle Hieraaetus pennatus. Some vagrant (sub)species are also dealt with like Black Brant Brant bernicla nigrans, Green-winged Teal Anas crecca carolinensis and Two-barred Greenish Warbler Phylloscopus plumbeitarsus but American Herring Gull Larus argentatus smithsonianus is lacking. The problem of escapes has been variously treated. Lesser Flamingo Phoenicopterus minor and Marbled Teal Marmaronetta angustirostris are fully covered, Emperor Anser canagicus and Ross' Gees A rossi are just mentioned and described in the text whereas Northern Mockingbird Mimus polyglottus is erroneously omitted. The range of species covered hardly overlaps the contents of Macmillan field guide by Alan Harris et al or the Penguin nature guides by Lars Jonsson, so these books supplement each other in a very usefull way. The 1300 colour illustrations by Ian Lewington (in fact, there are less!), conveniently put together in the middle of the book, are very accurate and reliable. The colours in this edition tend to bee too strong which makes Marmora's Warbler Sylvia sarda too blue and some Phylloscopus warblers too brown. Some birds, like the second-winter White-eyed Gull L leucophthalmus, are depicted as if they were about to lay an egg but this is peculiarity will not prevent correct identification. On every plate, the birds are drawn to scale and the captions are clear. All resembling species are in the same posture which makes comparision easier. Azure Tit's Parus cyanus chest-stripe, however, is left out in this way. The juvenile Marsh Sandpiper Tringa stagnatilis was a surprise again, this time with quite remarkable scapulars (cf Macmillan field guide). Thus, I will look out eagerly in the field for this plumage which, I think, is correctly depicted now. More than 10 plates show Nearctic passerines in all possible dresses. Per Alström and Peter Colston have treated every species thoroughly in the text. The descriptive part varies in length depending on visual information provided by the colour plates and the severity of identification pitfalls. Philadelphia Vireo Vireo philadelphia gets less than have a page while Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola gets nearly 2.5 pages. Sometimes, very usefull line drawings have been inserted, ed, tail patterns in Ring-billed Gull L delawarensis, outer rectrices and median wing-coverts in Blyth's Pipit Anthus godlewskii, wing formulae of Acrocephalus warblers und undertail-coverts of Arctic Redpoll Carduelis hornemanni. Comparision with commoner species is made if necessary. The bird vignettes in the margins are pretty and, moreover, help to prevent a nervous birder, just having seen a rarity, reading under the wrong species. However, the vignettes of Oriental Glareola maldivarum and Black-winged Pratincoles G nordmanni have been shifted. Unfortunately, key identification cjaracters are not stressed by using bold letter type which could help avoid drawing hasty conclusions. The bird's voice is given in a rather well-considered system but not in most non-passerines. Also habitat and behaviour are mentionend as well as the breeding range (no maps). Many birders will be interested in the bird's status in the various European countries. The authors have not side-stepped this troublesome chapter. The reader with a sense of puzzling out things can contribute many corrections to this chapter undoubtedly needed in future editions of the book. For instance, Italy's secen Siberian Rubythroats Luscinia calliope are intriguing, the occurence of Rufous Turtle Dove Streptopelia orientalis in Greece is quenstionable, and the breeding status of Ruddy Shelduck Tadorna ferruginea in the Netherlands must be mitigated. Bird topography, terminily ('jizz' could be defined somewhat sharper), moult, ageing and plumages, something about migration routes of American birds, where do vagrant species turn up and codes for rarity-finders and twitchers, are all briefly but usefully treated in the introductory sections. At the end of the book, a few pages are dedicated to British Rarities (with capitals!) and how the hot news is spread. Such stories could, of course, also be written for other European countries. The bibliography is, fortunately, much more 'European'. Next editions should contain even more countries like, eg, the Baltic states. There are separate indexes for English and scientific names. Surprisingly, a structural mistake has been made in the index of English names for all, usually commoner species that are mentioned or depicted for comparision. They are indexed with a page number only, without reference to a bold-face plate number (as in the real rarities) but this page number is, without any exception, always wrong! Some digging reveals that the correct page number can be obtained by subtracting 12 from the printed page number. Furthermore, the scientific names of these species are all omitted from the index of scientific names. I think few Dutch Birding readers will not buy this book. I even know a very keen birder who bought two copies, one for on his shelves and the other for on his car's dashboard.

Deze pagina is voor het laatst bijgewerkt op 24 oktober 2006.