Beyond your field guide

A review of "Collins Birds: A Complete Photographic Guide to all British and European Species" 

This is an excellent overview of European birds, written by Dominic Couzens. I'm surprised I haven't seen this volume before! It's not a field guide, but rather a kind of encyclopedia. It contains more information than a classical field guide, but without becoming overly long or detailed. All photos are in color. The species presentations concentrate on general behavior, habitat, breeding habits and mating rituals. There are also family presentations. Excellent if you want to know more about the birds you just managed to identify in the field (or at your duck pond), but don't have time reading Über-reference works like the HBW. The volume covers all of Europe except the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands (which have peculiar faunas all their own). Most species are illustrated. Weirdly, the range maps also show North Africa, Asia Minor and the Levant as part of “Europe”, despite the book not covering those regions. Even so, this is a very good addition to Heinzel-Fitter-Parslow, or whatever is the field guide of your choice. Five stars.