Handbook of the Birds of the World, volume 1: ostrich to ducks

Forest and Bird, Issue 267, 1 February 1993, Page 43

Handbook of the Birds of the World, volume 1: ostrich to ducks

Alan Tennyson

edited by Josep del Hoyo, Andrew Elliott and Jordi Sargatal (Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, in association with ICBP) 1992, 696pp, US$165 This ambitious book, the first volume of ten, is published under the imprimatur of the International Council for Bird Preservation. It is the first tume that anyone has attempted to detail the biology and distribution of every bird species. It is similar in format, size and price, but because of its wider coverage, inevitably less detailed, than other major projects such as Birds of the Western Palearctic and Handbook of the Birds of Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica which are currently in production. Unfortunately the book probably suffers from being too ambitious. Of the consultants listed, none seem to be from the Australasian/Pacific area. Thus for the birds of this region there are a number of worrying mistakes. Little spotted kiwi, for example, are shown in Fiordland. The conservation priority for fulmar

prions is apparently to eliminate "introduced mammals . . . from breeding islands’, yet all the bird’s breeding islands are free of predatory mammals. The population information on blackwinged petrels is ten years out of date. Some of the distribution maps and illustrations are sloppy and inaccurate, and many of the conservation classifications are » over-generous, with the critically endangered Chatham Islands taiko, for example, described only as "rare". But the book does have its good points. There are some beautiful photos, often illustrating interesting behavioural characteristics, and there is a welcome focus put on conservation aspects of species, even if at times this is superficial. Overall a useful general reference book to the world’s birds, if you can afford it. This volume includes more New Zealand species than the later ones will. It also highlights the inadequacy of much of the population information on New Zealand’s seabirds. Available from natural history booksellers or direct from the publishers, Lynx Edicions, Diagonal 477, 08036, Barcelona, Spain. Royalties go to ICBP.