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Many readers will be aware of van Duivendijk’s well-received Advanced Bird ID Guide (Brit. Birds 103: 680–681) and the large-format follow-on, Advanced Bird ID Handbook. In those guides, the author uses bullet points to describe the visual features most useful in identifying, ageing and sexing each Western Palearctic species and identifiable subspecies. The two-volume ID Handbook of European Birds, complete with a plethora of photographs, is the successor to these earlier text-only guides.

The beautifully produced title seeks to show – rather than simply tell – the reader about the relevant features of each bird. This is done using over 5,000 carefully selected annotated photographs. The quality, including reproduction, of the images (sourced through the AGAMI image bank) is exceptional. As in the earlier guides, the overwhelming focus is on visual clues discernible in the field or, more practically in the case of some subtler or hard to judge features, in photographs. There is relatively little reference to behavioural and structural features, while voice details, if mentioned at all, are not described in detail – readers will have to look, or listen, elsewhere for this, as well as information on status and distribution. Instead, the guide concentrates on offering a means to glean as much information as possible from a bird’s plumage and bare parts, with equal weight given to determining age and sex as to species identification.

The geographical scope is more limited than in the earlier guides by the same author and, indeed, most other regional references. North Africa and the Middle East are not included here, and the eastern boundary of ‘Europe’ lies at 35° East – roughly from eastern Svalbard and Murmansk, Russia, to central Turkey and Cyprus. Nonetheless, all but the rarest vagrants to this region are covered, resulting in most Western Palearctic and many Asian and North American species being included. In total, 733 species and numerous subspecies are covered.

Taxonomy and nomenclature generally follow the increasingly familiar IOC World List, while species order is sensibly adjusted to enable better comparison between similar species. Liberally illustrated introductory sections are provided for species or family groups, typically covering general identification and ageing details plus any important aspects of topography. Additional pages are sometimes included to allow direct comparison of certain features for difficult species pairs and groups, such as the underwing patterns of the Fea’s/Desertas/Zino’s Petrel Pterodroma feae/deserta/madeira group and tail patterns of the various Lesser Whitethroat Curruca curruca taxa.

The space devoted to species accounts is in proportion to the complexity of identification; thus, Pied Avocet Recurvirostra avosetta receives a single page with five images illustrating each age and sex category, while Heuglin’s Gull Larus [fuscus] heuglini (treated as a full species here) is covered in 14 images over three caveat-heavy pages. The author takes a realistic approach to what can – or should – be positively identified. Knotty identification problems remain and there is a healthy attitude towards mentioning the limits of knowledge in relation to perennially tricky species, such as Oriental Cuckoo Cuculus optatus and Pin-tailed Gallinago stenura and Swinhoe’s Snipes G. megala.

A short overall introduction in Volume 1 describes the coded language used to indicate the usefulness of a particular feature on a three-point scale from ‘diagnostic’, through ‘typical’ to merely ‘indicative’, i.e. only useful in combination with other features. In several instances it is acknowledged that the identification attached to an image is only possible because of the location it was taken, with, importantly, an explanation of why this is the case. The limitations of visual clues alone are fully acknowledged when necessary, but it is also clear that they can take you a very long way at times and well beyond simple species identification.

New identification characters that have come to light or been refined since the earlier guides are included, such as the differences in pattern on the underside of P10 on Arctic Stercorarius parasiticus and Long-tailed Skuas S. longicaudus or the age-related variation in the leg colour of the now three species of sand plover. In rare instances, the plate captions fail to fully explain what is expected; for example, on p. 294 a ‘1st-winter’ Little Crake Zapornia parva is depicted but the accompanying captions only describe species identification in relation to Baillon’s Crake Z. pusilla rather than the ageing characters used for Little Crake; for elaboration, you will have to look at the captions under ‘adult-type’ female and extrapolate. I would also have preferred the location of the images taken to be included more often than they are and, although the month of each image is given, a more precise date might have been preferable for some species in which moult timing is a useful indicator – four weeks can be a long time in the moult progress of large gulls, for example.

Originally written in Dutch, the ID Handbook has been translated into English, but you would barely know it, except for the very occasional odd phrases, such as ‘see there’ rather than the more usual ‘which see’ when cross referencing, which does not detract from the overall reading experience. Despite the vast amount of knowledge imparted in these pages, they never seem cluttered, thanks to careful planning and execution during the design phase, no doubt, but perhaps most of all owing to the authors’ enviable ability to concisely and precisely get across his well-considered, authoritative points. 

Even the most ardent identification enthusiast will find much that is new and thought-provoking here, especially in relation to non-passerines, for which there is relatively little similarly detailed reference material, especially gathered in one place. Those with a more general approach to their birding will likely find something new and interesting on almost every page. For the legions of birders who now carry cameras, the ID Handbook is an ideal one-stop reference to help make the maximum sense of the images taken.

A top-quality publication in every way and further evidence of how spoilt we are for excellent bird identification literature in Europe. Highly recommended.
 
Chris Kehoe