The Advanced Bird Guide: ID of Every Plumage of Every Western Palearctic Species [Paperback]

This amazing book (in association with top birders journal British Birds) describes all the field marks of all the birds (1,300 forms/races) of the Western Palearctic. With this book you have all the pointers to be able to age, sex and race any bird you are likely to see in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The only illustrations are the bird topography drawings near the front of the book, and there are no distribution maps. Certainly do not let this put you off - this book is absolutely crammed with cutting edge identification criteria.
Design is modern, crisp and looks very 'workmanlike' and thorough. Size wise it's about the same as an average paperback. The design is very pleasing on the eye. All the relevant ID pointers are presented in 'bullet form' underneath the species heading, with the most key at the top, and then listing others in order of relevance. Starting with field marks to identify the species in 'All plumages', all the pointers to ID the bird in adult and juvenile/immature plumages (at different times of the year) are included. Where relevant you also get key pointers to identify the birds in flight, key behaviour, any key calls or songs, notes on key moult patterns, and other interesting notes that help ID certain species.
It is extremely thorough when dealing with races. For instance, in the superb Collins Bird Guide (2nd edition), one race of Eider is described (mollissima). The Advanced Bird ID Guide describes a further 4 races - Northern Eider (borealis), Dressers Eider (dresseri) a race from North America recently confirmed in Europe, Pacific Eider (v-nigra) a possible vagrant, and a race from Shetland and the Faroes (faroeensis). If you see a slightly strange Hen Harrier and wondered if you have a 'Northern Harrier' from North America, then the information you need is in this book (nothing in Collins Bird Guide). Incredibily it includes information on 3 extra races of Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler! It does state though that 'some individuals are very difficult to identify to subspecies'....I bet they are!
This book would not suit people new to the hobby, they really do need illustrations. However this book is an excellent addition to the modern birders arsenal. Coupled with the Collins Bird Guide (a stunning and beautiful book), the Advanced Bird ID Guide gives european birders all the portable ID information they could wish for. Thanks for author Nils Van Duivendik for putting this together. At just over £10 from Amazon, this has to be the best value bird book of all time. Highly recommended.

A field guide with no pictures sounds bizarre, but this is an amazing book for getting to grips with trickier IDs. It's not for absolute beginners - you'll have to have narrowed you bird ID down to a few similar species first - but all the plumage details in one place, displayed in simple bullet-point form, is an act of simple genius. You can only imagine the tireless hours that went in to compiling it.

I'd recommend every birder grabs a copy of this, it's a superb piece of work.

I found it hard to believe that a bird guide could be so different. I was wrong because here it is!

This book, unlike others, does not contain pictures to aid identification. At this point, you might start to panick but there is no need. The layout is simple - concise detailed checklists of the finer points of identification for the range of species found in the area covered. As has been mentioned by other people, this may not be suitable for some beginners but I would certainly consider this a worthwhile point of reference for the majority of birdwatchers who want a quick reminder of various aspects of bird identification.