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List Price: £16.99
Our Price: £12.61
Author:
Lars Jonsson
By Christopher Helm Publishers Ltd
 A "must have" for bird lovers - just for the plates, 2006-04-11
This is a perfectly viable field guide to the birds of Europe and, if it weren't for the existence of the Collins Guide, it could easily be a top recommendation. One thing marks this book apart from other field guides though: the illustrations are so beautiful that they might have been painted for art's sake alone. I have been fascinated by Jonsson's gulls and shorebirds from an earlier series published by habitat and now to have all the birds together is just wonderful. His paintings capture the "jizz" of the bird better than those of any other artist I know. This book will give great aesthetic pleasure long before (and after) one gets it into the field.
List Price: £15.99
Our Price: £7.96
Author:
Sean Dooley
By Allen & Unwin
Thoroughly good read, 2007-08-22
I enjoyed this book immensely. It is well written, it is interesting, touching and genuinely funny. I have never been to Australia and haven't even heard of most of the birds mentioned in this book, however, this did not detract in any way from the pleasure I got from reading it.
The book is written both for birders and non-birders. Dooley discusses the beauty and character of the birds he sees without going into the minutae of their identification. As such birders will identify with the thrill of the chase of the birds and non-birders will enjoy the descriptions of the birds and their environments.
I guess most people buying this book will be birders and they will no doubt be amused at how similar the twitching scene is on the other side of the planet to here in Britain. I recommend this book whole-heartedly to both birders and non-birders alike.
List Price: £24.99
Our Price: £19.12
Author:
James Ferguson-Lees, David Christie
By Christopher Helm Publishers Ltd
Outdoors friendly version of 600 page classic, 2005-12-09
Yesterday I managed to buy a copy of the Ferguson-Lees and Christie Raptors of the World Field Guide. I skimmed through it on the train back from York and can thoroughly recommend it. It has become a useful and portable version of the huge tome that came out in 2001, having half the number of pages!There are several new aspects to the book. It has new plates by Alan Harris, updated maps and an annotated list of all raptors. There are 25 extra raptors, these being elevated to full species level. After just an hour's train journey skimming through it I can definetely recommend it for anyone's Christmas list.
List Price: £14.99
Our Price: £8.84
Author:
Peter Slater, Pat Slater, Raoul Slater
By New Holland Publishers
 A handy book to take bush walking, 2002-02-01
This book covers all the birds of Australia with good bird drawings and maps showing where the birds are found, which really helps distinguish between similar birds. This book is compact enough to take in your bag or pocket when out and about-so you can identify birds in the city, country or anywhere!
List Price: £20.00
Our Price: £16.00
Author:
John Long
By OUP USA
 From Dinosaurs to Birds - A Bunch of Intermediates, 2008-10-31
It is quite an opulent edition. Big book format, good quality paper and an abundance of colorful dinosaur illustrations. But on close inspection, some irritating flaws emerge.
First of all there is the "generalist" part of the book, laying the foundation for the species profiles. It discusses various carnivorous dinosaur families and how these seem to lead, by careful evolutionary steps, to the first birds. The text is interesting but the "dinosaurs-birds" connection comes through somewhat weakly. The arguments are there all right, but I have read much stronger propositions on the subject, "Dino-Birds" and "Glorified Dinosaurs" for instance. And there is virtually nothing on the most crucial question of the origin of flight
Then we come to the main part of the book, the profiles themselves. Well, there is a very good representation from all relevant dinosaur and bird families, with many obscure and / or recently discovered species, mainly form the current paleontologist's paradise, the Liaoning Province in China. The emphasis, of course, is on the feathered dinosaur species, but it seems to me that the author and artist take the opportunity to put feathers in as many reptiles as possible, even on scant paleontological evidence. Perhaps they thought this way it would be easier for the general public to understand the continuum between the two animal groups, but poetic and artistic license may go just a bit too far. Finally, the artist's comments on why he chose animal postures and colors were a nice documentation touch, but his arguments are not always convincing and the images themselves sometimes verge, to my opinion, on the kitsch.
Overall it is a good try on the subject, one of the most controversial in modern paleontology, but it could have done with less flamboyance and more quality and substance.
List Price: £19.99
Our Price: £12.90
By The Natural History Museum
Really interesting..., 2008-04-23
I decided to get this book because like many people I often marvel at the global movements of birds with the seasons. I had lots of questions in my mind so bought this book. Its a beautifully illustrated book with lots of maps and charts. It presents this complex subject in a way that would appeal to young or old alike. I did find some bits a little confusing as the text seemed to jump about a bit in some places, but this is a good book and I like it a lot, I suspect I shall dip into it on a regular basis in the future to help reinforce my knowledge of this subject or just to look at the pictures and maps!
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