FLIGHT IDENTIFICATION OF EUROPEAN PASSERINES

TOMASZ COFTA, PRINCETON/WILD GUIDES, SB, £38

Just when you think that WILDGuides have covered pretty much every wildlife ID guide necessary, you suddenly find they’ve come out with yet another fabulous book that has to somehow be fitted into your bookcase.

This has both drawings and a lot of photographs of the birds in flight, and covers 205 passerines and 32 near-passerines.

With each species, there’s a box telling you what type of migrant it is, along with in-flight lookalike species; and then the species account covers size, comparable species, structure and shape, coloration, flight, and flocking behaviour.

Calls are covered by both a description and a sonogram, and there are also links to online recordings, a nice touch.

Of course, plenty of other field guides and bird ID books also cover birds in flight, but you really haven’t seen anything until you take a look at this!