For the birds?

“The Pictorial Encylopedia of Birds” by Jan Hanzak is originally a Czech work, also translated to the fantastic sister language Slovak. There's a Swedish translation, too, I believe. Probably a real scorcher in its day, the 500-page volume contains very little text and a lot of photos, although unfortunately most of them are in black and white. Or perhaps not so unfortunately, since I doubt a full-colour edition would go for 50 cents! But yes, I can't say it's a *bad* book. The Dodo and the Imperial Wood-pecker stands out, otherwise it's all the usual birdies we know from other sources: honkers, storks, owls, lyrebirds, rooks, blackbirds (European ones)…well, there are about 1,000 photos in this work, so you get the drift. Five stars, but only for super-aficionados of the class Aves.