Birdwatch

Gardening leave

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THE illustriou­s name of Collins graces an abundance of brilliant books, but sadly the eminent authors of this one have been illserved by a rushed job with poor copy-editing and a mish-mash of content.

It seems like a UK-based book; the selection of species is British, with maps showing Britain and the adjacent Continent, and yet throughout there are references to American birds with no explanatio­n.

A page of eggs, showing ‘relative sizes’ but all out of scale, includes that of American Robin. Topography diagrams use Eastern Bluebird, American Goldfinch and Common Grackle; nestbox illustrati­ons show Mountain Chickadee, Tree Swallow and Eastern Bluebird. American Robin, Cedar Waxwing, American Yellow Warbler and many more are just randomly scattered throughout, with no suggestion that you might not see these in UK gardens.

Planting flowers can attract hummingbir­ds, suet brings in Red-breasted Nuthatches. The ‘Garden birds’ chapter starts

oddly with Archaeopte­ryx and a photo sequence of ‘Ringneck Doves’. The sequence of egg nestling is illustrate­d by Golden Eagle and Sandwich Tern.

There are grammatica­l and typographi­cal errors, and even duplicated sentences. The informatio­n is always sound and many of the photograph­s are excellent, but we are often left wondering. If Spotted Flycatcher is the smaller of the two, what is the other one? Why are some birds Swallows and others Barn Swallows; why are two subspecies of Long-tailed Tit given species (binomial) names? The writing is a touch dull, the language often a bit ‘oldfashion­ed bird-book’.

Separately these are minor irritation­s, but so many add up to a poor result. It is nearly a good book, but it sadly misses the mark. Rob Hume

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