The titles reviewed in this section of Ibis are available for reference at the Alexander Library of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Radcliffe Science Library, Parks Road, Oxford, UK. Please write, telephone +44 (0) 1 865 271143 or email sophie.wilcox@bodleian.ox.ac.uk prior to your visit to make an appointment.

The aim of the Alexander Library is to build up a comprehensive collection of literature as a service to ornithologists. Its holdings include an extensive range of periodicals and a large number of reprints drawn from many sources: additional reprints of readers’ papers are always welcome. The library has always greatly benefited from its close relationship with the BOU. For many years, all journals received in exchange for IBIS have been deposited in the library, as have most of the books sent for review, through the generosity of reviewers and publishers.

In return, as a service to readers, this review section of IBIS is organized and edited by Dr Richard Sale (richard.sale@zoo.o.ac.uk), with the help of a panel of contributors. We are always grateful for offers of further assistance with reviewing, especially with foreignlanguage titles.

Books for review: publishers are kindly asked to send two copies of each title to Richard Sale, IBIS Book Reviews, Alexander Library, Radcliffe Science Library, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QP, UK.

J.A. Copsey, S.A. Black, J.J. Groombridge & C.G. Jones (eds). Species Conservation. Lessons from islands. 377 pages, many colour & monochrome illustrations, Cambridge University Press, 2018, hardback £82.99, paperback £32.99, ISBN: 9780521728195 (paperback), 9780521899390 (hardback), www.cambridge.org

It is hardly possible in a short review to do justice to a book as densely packed with useful insights and information as this compilation. To begin with, the title understates the content – while the focus is on saving or recovering individual species, there is a great deal on habitat restoration, invasive species removal and using surrogates to restore lost ecological functions, all of which have wider ecosystem benefits. Given that the islands discussed range from specks of a few hectares to Madagascar, much of the material is of interest and use to conservationists in continental areas too.

The text and examples include plenty of birds, but other land vertebrates are well represented – not so, however fish, invertebrates or plants, except in passing. Given the history and experience of the editors, there is much on Mauritius and New Zealand, although Madagascar, Hawaii, the Caribbean and the California Channel Islands feature strongly. I was however surprised at the absence of other islands with important conservation histories, notably the Seychelles, Bali/Komodo, Okinawa, Saint Helena, Canaries, etc.

As the subtitle indicates, the emphasis is on lessons learnt from experiences of practical conservation, with particularly valuable chapters on project leadership and involving local stakeholders, both too often overlooked or undervalued in conservation planning. Although slow or remote decision‐making within conservation bodies is discussed, there is very little, possibly for political reasons in the context of ongoing projects, on the struggle with governmental bureaucracy and sometimes obstruction that can be encountered in places ranging from Mauritius to the USA (e.g. Hawaii). In Mauritius there is ongoing rivalry and delicate negotiation between the NGO doing most of the work and the government's National Park service that controls the islands (and mainland) where the projects are carried out, but there is no hint of this in the book.

The book has 12 chapters by a range of authors, the first and last, by Black and Copsey, being an introduction and a summing up. Between we have (in sequence) a summary of evolution on islands, genetics of small populations, invasive species and their effects, monitoring populations, project planning, eradicating invasives, leadership issues, sustaining recovery, restoring ecosystems, and engaging local communities. The recovery process is illustrated in some detail through a bat, a lizard, and two birds with complex, partly contradictory issues – the Stitchbird (Hihi) Notiomystis cincta in New Zealand and the Echo Parakeet Psittacula eques in Mauritius.

In any manual of this sort the bibliographies are a very valuable resource in themselves, although in some chapters there are lapses where salient items of information are inexplicably unreferenced. In one such case (p. 343) the invasive monkey in Mauritius is given the wrong identity, and a well‐known issue with the sanctity of monkeys in Hindu beliefs is thought merely ‘likely’ to influence opinion on controlling the species, when in fact it is a crucial difficulty making elimination politically unfeasible – the monkey, Macaca fascicularis (not M. mulatta ) is a serious nest predator of endangered birds.

While the discussion throughout is well constructed and indeed should be essential reading for all involved in conservation projects (on islands or not), the text is very rich and could usefully have been leavened with more boxed case histories – especially more examples of conservation failures in which there tend to be more important lessons to be learnt. The horrendous story of the Hawaiian Crow Corvus hawaiiensis is only mentioned in passing, although in terms of bureaucracy, failure to engage locals and missed opportunities it almost deserved a chapter to itself, rather than just a reference to the book about it.

Minor shortcomings it may have, but this is an important and instructive text and should be on every conservation manager's shelf

Anthony Cheke

G. Mikusiński, J.‐M. Roberge & R.J. Fuller (eds.) Ecology and Conservation of Forest Birds. Numerous b&w illustrations, Cambridge University Press, 2018, hardback £74.99, paperback £39.99, ISBN: 9781107072138 (hardback), ISBN 9781107420724 (paperback), www.cambridge.org

This substantive book has 28 authors in 14 chapters, numerous black and white illustrations and tables, many references and draws much important and original material together. It is thus an essential source on the forest birds of Europe, the region which it covers best. There is both a species index (with Latin and some English names) and a general index.

The main grouping of the chapters is into adaptations, European forests and their bird communities, and conservation. Each chapter is effectively stand‐alone, leading to some topics being split across chapters. The authors apparently have a welcome range of views on controversial topics such as how open the canopy of Europe was, and why, or on the potential impacts and benefits of climate change, meaning it is important to compare chapters.

The book states an aim to make the current breadth of knowledge available to wider audiences, and it should indeed be very useful to non‐specialists as well as specialists. However, specialists will already know that many interpretations and recommendations in bird conservation are controversial, not just amongst ornithologists but with those interested in conserving other taxa. Non‐specialists need to be better alerted to the substantive ecological differences between the temperate forests of the Americas and Europe, let alone the tropical forests, because over‐generalization of management across regions could be disastrous. There is important literature on forest specialist birds and old‐growth forests relevant to Europe and elsewhere which is not introduced.

Only two of the authors give a non‐European affiliation, and whilst many are doubtless experienced elsewhere it is evident that the key messages from studies of fragmentation in the Americas, the tropics and Australia have still not been absorbed in Europe. Hence ‘rewilding’ gets less than one page of text, and even that is shared with land sharing/sparing. The restoration of Europe's forests requires a more thorough coverage, including the international lessons from the Core Area Model and empirical studies of fragments and edges elsewhere. There are over‐generalizations on what management or disturbance creates habitat diversity, and there is not enough on the problems some diversity can create.

To me, a diagram (in Chapter 11) showing the 50% decline of forest specialist birds in Finland from the 1950s and 1960s to the 2010s could be the centre of the conservation debate: how can we reduce extinction rates and focus on genuinely threatened species – not just maintain biologically depleted cultural landscapes? Whilst chapters may mention them briefly, it is very revealing that core area models, and reintroduction, are not indexed. Conversely, climate change and coppicing are heavily indexed, perhaps reflecting interests of the authors and editors and what the perceived audience may want to know. However, many international readers will appreciate the surging threat from biomass and recreational uses being introduced.

Given the valuable detail on the ecology and behaviour of many birds, the book will be an essential part of European forest bird ecology and conservation – so long as it is used in conjunction with sources bringing wider perspectives.

Clive Hambler

Reilly, J. The Ascent of Birds; how modern science is revealing their story. 340 pages, numerous maps and diagrams, 37 colour plates, Exeter: Pelagic Publishing, 2018, hardback, £24.99, ISBN: 97817842716595, pelagicpublishing.com

This very useful book draws together many of the recent advances in our knowledge of the phylogeny of birds, especially the molecular studies. If this sounds dull, it should not, because these findings are engagingly coupled with descriptions of the world at the time and describes the birds in the context of many other aspects of the species’ biology.

I suppose it could be argued that molecular techniques really became of age in 2014 with the publication in Science by Jarvis et al . (the ‘et al .’ in this case being 104 other authors using the equivalent of more than 400 years of computing) of a DNA‐based phylogeny of birds which enables us to look at the Class Aves in a classification which – while many of the lesser groupings remain to be resolved – looks likely to stand the test of time. The main part of the book – 263 pages – is divided into 27 chapters. Each examines a particular species or group of species. They are selected in roughly chronological order – related to the timing of the bird's or group's appearance in the evolutionary history of the Class Aves (a useful time‐line and a figure of the geological ages is provided for easy reference). Those familiar with The Ancestor's Tale (Richard Dawkins, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2004) will recognize the approach, although Reilly moves forwards in time while Dawkins goes back from modern times: both work for me.

The layout of most chapters is similar, in that they cover the relationships of the bird/group to sister groups and what is special to them in our understanding of the phylogeny of birds. Usually there are other features of the group: dynamic soaring in albatrosses; the development of navigational systems in waders (shorebirds); and the anisodactyl passerine foot. Not all seem immediately relevant to the main story, but all make interesting reading. As an example, Chapter 1 in the sequence is ‘The Tinamou's story’ and covers the relationships of birds and dinosaurs, the phyletic relationships of the palaeognath birds, continental drift and (actually in the following Chapter) the K‐Pg boundary and the demise of the dinosaurs.

Chapter 13, The Parrot's story , ends the chapters on non‐passerines and relates how the parrots evolved into such a large and widespread family. The ancestral parrot probably lived on Gondwana in the Cretaceous. Their diversity is probably the result of the widespread appearance of the large fruits and nuts that appeared in the early Cenozoic period, this new food source being the driving factor in the emergence and great diversification of the family coupled with the break‐up of Gondwana. Detailed sequencing of DNA from all the major living bird groups was responsible, just over 10 years ago, for one of the major upsets of traditional taxonomy, demonstrating conclusively that parrots are the sister group to the passerine assemblage; the next closest group to the parrots and the passerines is the falcons which are not closely related to the other birds of prey at all.

The remaining 14 chapters are devoted to the passerines. Amongst the many interesting stories perhaps two stand out in importance. First, Chapter 17, The Scrubbird's story – where song began , together with Chapter 19, The Crow's story , describe the studies that revealed that the passerines evolved in the southern hemisphere and the ‘Core corvoids’, which formed the first major radiation of songbirds, evolved in the Australo‐New Guinea region. Chapter 15, The Manakin's story , examines why there are so many species of sub‐oscines and looks at the causes of avian endemism in Amazonia.

This is a useful summary of recent serious scientific discoveries, put together in a highly readable form. The text is supported by 34 pages of notes and references a detailed index and 37 colour plates.

Christopher Perrins

M.L. Morrison, A.D. Rodewald, G. Voelker, M.R. Colon & J.F. Prather (Eds.). Ornithology: Foundation, Analysis, and Application. 1004 pages, profusely illustrated with diagrams, figures and photographs of birds, mostly in colour . Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2018, hardback, £81.50 (NHBS), ISBN: 9781421424712 . www.nhbs.com

This is a weighty tome. It is intended as an accompaniment to a university course in ornithology, but at the same time provides a useful introduction to most avian subjects for graduates or more senior workers. The editors have done a good job of collecting a wide range of authors whose expertise spans the field well.

The 54 authors have combined to produce 31 chapters which are grouped into seven parts: (1) The Big Picture (what makes a bird, origins, evolution, species concepts, distribution); (2) Building the Bird (development, anatomy, physiology, endocrinology, feathers and moult); (3) Movement, Perception and Communication (flight and locomotion, colour, the senses, song and brain, acoustic communication); (4) How Birds Live (foraging, reproduction, social systems, ecology, migration and dispersal); (5) Populations and Assemblages (population structure and ecology, communities, parasites and diseases, climate change); (6) Management and Conservation (extinction, man‐made hazards, conservation tools, ecosystem planning, social and economic value of birds); and (7) Science and Practice of Ornithology (careers in ornithology, fundamental methods for research).

With a field as huge as ornithology, inevitably the coverage of each subject is brief, but each entry is packed with information. Throughout, the book is liberally scattered with diagrams, graphs, maps and photographs. In addition, there are numerous ‘boxed’ sections covering specific features relevant to the chapter: a considerable number of these are mini‐biographies of ornithologists who have made significant contributions to a particular field. Each chapter also has a summary, a brief discussion of potential applications and some possible subjects for class discussion.

The text is well‐referenced: each chapter has its own reference list, averaging perhaps 4–5 pages, some 150 pages in total with possibly in excess of 5000 references. These, together with a detailed 40‐page index, mean that the work as a whole provides the reader with a good introduction to almost any topic.

Christopher Perrins

Lack, D. (author) & Lack, A. (contributor). Swifts in a Tower. 286 pages, 19 colour photographs and 28 b&w illustrations. Unicorn Publishing Group, 2018, hardback, £8.99 from www.nhbs.com, ISBN: 9781911604365 .

This new edition of David Lack's classic work on the Common Swift (Apus apus ) is timely. First published in 1956 it has long been out of print and expensive to buy second‐hand. The original text remains as it was. The new edition has very fine recent photographs from the tower. It also contains an additional chapter by Dr Andrew Lack (son of the author) which neatly summarizes 60 years of further learning about Swifts, including classification changes to the family Apodidae, and what has been discovered about their winter movements using geolocators.

In the 1950s there were roughly twice as many Common Swifts in Britain as now. They were a familiar summer sight in every town and village, although what happened under the eaves and tiles where most of them nested was a mystery. Aware that Swifts nested in the ventilation shafts of the tower of the University Museum of Natural History in Oxford, David Lack had the idea of having modifications made to facilitate a study of their nesting habits. Swifts in a Tower was the result. It described for the first time the bird's courtship, nest building, egg‐laying and incubation, and how in five or six weeks a tiny chick, ‘hideous’ but ‘a marvel of adaptation’, develops into a fully grown bird ready to enter ‘its aerial life in a very wide world’.

In the introductory chapter David Lack refers to the ‘Perils of Specialisation’. Swifts derive benefits from spending almost their entire lives in the air, but there is a risk inherent in their complete dependence on airborne insects for food. His concern then was that in spells of inclement weather finding food becomes much harder. Now, however, Swifts are threatened by insect shortages throughout the British summer and at other times too: and today they also face other difficulties. Weather patterns over the whole of their range are no longer predictable. Rainforests in central Africa, an important wintering area for Swifts, are being depleted, and nest‐sites in Britain which they return to year after year are often lost following building repairs, alterations or demolition work. The result, according to the British Trust for Ornithology, is a shocking decline of more than 50% since 1995.

At least now, thanks to the campaigning work of Swift Conservation and Action for Swifts, individuals and small groups of volunteers around Britain are involved in a variety of conservation initiatives to try to help. Many people have put up nestboxes. Plenty of these have attracted Swifts and some have cameras fitted which, as in the Museum, enable breeding activities, the growth of chicks and fledging numbers to be monitored. Others work with local councils, developers and builders to promote the use of specially designed Swift bricks in new buildings, or by trying to protect important nest‐sites. The RSPB has also taken up the challenge. This book is just one outcome of the project it led to establish Oxford as a Swift City. Nationally, interest is now sufficient to warrant a successful annual Swift Awareness Week.

Swifts in a Tower remains the essential reference work for all those interested in Swift conservation. We have had to wait a long time for a new edition, but this one is a credit to those involved and should attract many new admirers to the ‘Devil Birds’.

Chris Mason

Coulson, J.C. Gulls, 478 pages, Numerous colour photos, figures and maps . London: William Collins, 2019, hardback (£65) and paperback (£35), ISBN: 9780008201425 (hardback), 9780008201432 (paperback) .

Gulls divide people's opinions: they may evoke a memory of time spent at the seaside, the signature tune of Desert Island Discs, the loss of a cherished ice‐cream or a close swoop from a rooftop nest. Although some may appreciate the gulls’ bolshiness, they are not welcome by everybody and are often seen as a blight, although the latter was not always so. In the 19^th century, gulls and other seabirds had such low populations that in 1869 the Seabird Preservation Act sought to protect them. Coulson reports that in a speech in support of the act during the parliamentary debate one member lauded gulls as the mariners’ rescuers, noting that ‘in foggy weather those birds by their cries afforded warning of the proximity of a rocky shore ’. At that time the Isle of Man could impose a penalty of £5 (about £600 in today's money) on ‘every man who willfully killed or destroyed a seagull ’.

The IOC World Bird List recognizes 52 species of gulls from nine genera. John Coulson's New Naturalist focuses on the British Isles of course, with a chapter on each of the nine species of gulls that have been recorded to breed in the Isles, and then briefly describing a further 20 species that have been recorded at least intermittently. So, this book covers not all gulls, but still over half of the world's gull species, which is impressive given that the British Isles cover a very small proportion of the world's surface.

The individual species descriptions all start with a section on appearance of the focal species, followed by sections on distribution and population changes, breeding biology, movements and food & feeding. The section on appearance also discusses the challenges of field identification, in particular if birds are not yet in mature plumage (a task compared by some to the bird‐watchers’ equivalent of distinguishing fine wines) and some of the taxonomic uncertainties. However, this is not a field guide and the photographs are small and unconvincing. For gull identification it would be best to refer to one of the excellent field guides that are available.

The book provides interesting and thorough descriptions of changes in abundance, distribution and movements, of each species which, to me, is its strength: here, the author's life‐long experience studying gulls and his digging into historical records illuminates the book and reveals many fascinating stories. Although the populations of several species have declined in the British Isles over the past few decades, with some species now on the UK's red list of conservation concerns (Black‐legged Kittiwake, Herring Gull), many species also show shifts in their distribution, expanding their range outside the British Isles or extending their breeding range into the British Isles (Mediterranean Gull, Yellow‐legged Gull). It is not only the large‐scale geographical distribution that shifts, as gulls are also shifting into new breeding and foraging habitats. Foremost of the observed changes are shifts inland, particularly into built‐up areas. At least 10 species worldwide and six species in Britain have now colonized built‐up areas, but there are differences between species in when, and in what numbers, they did so. Gulls are good at finding new ways of making a living where their natural habitat has declined, predation risk has increased, or food has become rare and that may be why they manage to thrive in cities which provide safe nesting sites and an abundance of food. It is therefore likely that they have also changed in other habits. However, the book contains little on such changes except to mention that Black‐legged Kittiwakes are now breeding later than they used to.

Exploiting new habitats and resources may not be surprising as gulls are one of the kickass entrepreneurs of the avian world. The book expresses clearly the idea of gulls not only being generalists but incredible opportunists that have discovered many new food resources over the past couple of decades. In the book, Coulson provides many fascinating examples, but tends to present individual studies in isolation. However fascinating and pioneering studies on individual populations are, it needs to be kept in mind that for a generalist opportunist, each population operates in a distinct landscape that offers unique opportunities that will be seized by the gulls. Innovative feeding behaviours are particularly frequent in gulls. As a result of the focus on individual studies the book gives the impression that each gull species has its own ecological niche and differs from other species of gulls. However, gulls are masters of adaptability: if one compares different populations of the same species at different sites, differences between the populations can be as large as between‐species differences. Therefore, generalizations from studies on a population at a particular site to the whole species are problematic, and what the book lacks is a more synthetic view arising from comparison across multiple studies.

The gulls’ great adaptability may also help to understand why gull taxonomy is a thorny issue. The book just touches a bit on the many uncertainties which challenge taxonomy. Several gull species are divided into sub‐species, but the status of sub‐species vs. species or whether they represent geographical gradients remains unclear. The book has little on why gulls have such a fuzzy taxonomy. Does their generalist habits and great adaptability lead to differences between species being easily smudged? Hybrids between different gull species seem to be not uncommon and gene exchange might have been common between species. For instance, American Herring Gulls have a Great Black‐back Gull gene that European Herring Gulls do not have. This might indicate some ecological flexibility that brings species into contact with each other and allows for hybrid viability and contributes to the gulls’ great ecological flexibility.

John Coulson's stated aim in the book is ‘bringing together and digesting information on the gull species that occur in Britain and Ireland’ (page xv). Does the book succeed? The writing is very clear and engaging, readily explaining even complex issues. The book certainly contains a richness of information on the individual species. However, shoe‐boxing the ecology of these generalists into separate chapters risks losing the bigger picture. Principles probably general to most gulls are discussed in the chapter specific to the species where the discovery was first made – for instance, the cost of egg production is probably not unique to Lesser Black‐backed Gulls and other gulls may behave similarly to Herring Gulls at landfill sites. I think there was a need for a discussion of common principles across the gulls. I also think the book could have benefited from more referencing of studies; the occasional mentioning of names of relevant researchers and a list of further reading means that only some of the original studies can be chased up. Numbered footnotes referring to the source references, as used in other volumes of this series, would not distract from the reading flow and would have made this book more valuable. Having said that, I did enjoy reading the book and it is a useful and accessible addition to the literature on the fascinating world of gulls.

Ruedi Nagar

Poole, A. F. Ospreys: The Revival of a Global Raptor. 205 pages, Numerous colour photographs and maps of migratory flights and distributions . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019, hardback, £29.50 . ISBN: 9781421427157, www.nhbs.com

Thirty years ago Alan Poole published Ospreys: A Natural and Unnatural History (Cambridge University Press, 1989) in which he described not only the Osprey's natural history, but also its near extirpation over much of its range due to the effects of pesticides and guns, as well as the significant recovery of Osprey populations in New England and Scotland following the banning of DDT, and conservation efforts. This new book summarizes new research on the species as well as the results of continuing conservation efforts on its behalf.

The book is divided into eight chapters with subjects ranging from distribution, foraging behavior, breeding, migration and other movements, population health and continuing threats to population stability. The recovery of Osprey populations since their nadir is exemplified by the increase in breeding pairs in coastal areas of the north‐eastern United States from about 30 in 1970 to over 1000 today. Similar recoveries have occurred in northern Europe and other regions of the world, including range extensions into areas where Ospreys were not previously known to have bred, a remarkable recovery following the banning of DDT and the significant diminution in gun deaths. Potential threats still exist, the consequences to Osprey feeding at commercial fish farms being one of the most serious. Nevertheless, Poole concludes, ‘It's a good era in which to be an Osprey biologist,’ a statement that is exemplified by special sections scattered throughout the text describing the work of Osprey biologists from several countries (one each from Finland, Germany, Italy and Scotland, and two from the USA).

Ospreys is liberally illustrated with many excellent photographs of the birds and their habitats by photographers from four continents. Beautiful watercolors by Julie Zickefoose of Ospreys in their habitats also adorn its pages. In addition, there are numerous distribution maps as well as maps depicting the migratory, foraging and natal dispersal movements of Ospreys based on satellite tracking.

In short, Poole's Ospreys is an informative and beautifully illustrated volume on one of bird conservation's success stories. It will be a welcome addition to any raptor biologist's library and should inspire the next generation of Osprey biologists.

Ted R. Anderson

Carter, I & Powell, D. The Red Kite's Year. 176 pages, numerous watercolours and sketches . Pelagic Publishing, 2019, paperback £25, ISBN: 9781784272005, pelagicpublishing.com

The Red Kite Milvus milvus came close to extinction as a British breeding species during the first half of the 20th century: only a relict population survived in a remote area of central Wales. During the second half of the century the Welsh population grew at a painfully slow rate, but a pioneering re‐introduction programme, begun in the Chilterns and in Scotland in 1989, has boosted the British breeding population to such an extent that in some areas a bird that was virtually unknown 30 years ago is now regarded as a pest by a disgruntled few.

Roger Lovegrove's book, The Kite's Tale. The Story of the Red Kite in Wales (RSPB 1990), gave a full account of the history of the species in Britain from a Welsh perspective and Carter's earlier book, The Red Kite (Arlequin 2001), is a fairly comprehensive monograph. The Red Kite's Year brings us up to date. This is an attractive book. Dan Powell's cover design invites you to pick it up and explore further (Carter and Powell are credited as co‐authors rather than author and illustrator). Artwork is used to illustrate the book throughout: there are no photographs. This has the effect of upgrading the quality of the book as Powell's illustrations, gathered over many years of kite watching, exactly catch the jizz of the kite and the inherent lightness of the media employed conveys the apparent fragility of these birds. They drift through the text.

Powell's illustrations often carry expanded captions and we also have some of his diary extracts. This adds a personal touch and keeps the book lively, but in spite of the use of different coloured backgrounds and different fonts does lead to a few places where there are as many as three narrative streams on one set of pages, which can make things a bit disjointed. The balance of the book rests somewhere between readable and dip‐able.

The title could be slightly misleading. However, the monthly chapters are used as stepping off points for appropriate discussion – March for example for nest spacing and breeding density, November for roosting behaviour. Interleaved with the monthly chapters are dedicated sections: History in Britain, The Red Kite re‐introduction programme, Threats and Problems, World Status, To feed or not to feed? There is a selected bibliography for those who want to learn more.

I would have liked to have seen more in the section on protection in Wales. The work of the Welsh Kite Trust gets a deserved acknowledgement at the beginning of the book. The Kite Committees of the first half of the 20th century and their bounty payment schemes are mentioned, but the misjudgements, betrayals and personality clashes which dogged the scheme and are recounted in Lovegrove's book are absent. A few examples would have added a pinch of spice.

Two themes come strongly through. Firstly, that re‐introductions can be very successful, even if the birds don't behave exactly as envisaged: for instance, the Kites’ reluctance to spread beyond their release areas. Secondly, that if we thought raptor persecution was a thing of the past we can think again. Unacceptable numbers of Kites are still being poisoned and shot.

The book has been designed to have a wide appeal. Its ideal reader is the naturalist or birder keen to know a bit more about the bird that has recently arrived in the area. Those looking for depth of detail or data will need to look further, perhaps inspired to learn more. The number and quality of the illustrations are one of its strengths and the need to do these justice is recognized in the quality of the paper used throughout. This is a book that will both enlighten and delight, and many will keep it within easy reach.

Barry Gray

P. Palatitz, S. Solt & P. Fehérvári (eds). The Blue Vesper. 240 pages, numerous photographs and figures in colour, Red‐footed Falcon Conservation Workgroup, 2018, hardback, £44.99, ISBN: 9786158092548, www.nhbs.com.

The Red‐footed Falcon Falco vespertinus is an occasional visitor to Britain, although I recall a few years ago when a number turned up one year leading to speculation that it might become a breeding species. The hope turned out to be misplaced, the Falcon remaining confined to its eastern European range where it is now listed as Near Threatened.

The Latin name for the species derives from ‘night’, reflecting the frequent hunting forays at dusk, and the gathering of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of birds in colonial roots pre‐migration. It is actually called the Night Falcon in several countries of its range, although the Hungarian name emphasizes the blue tinge of the male's slate grey plumage, the book's title conflating the two ideas. The book's editors are part of a team which has spent 15 years closely observing the Falcons in Hungary and have produced a very attractive book which uses several novel presentational ideas (almost all of which work) as well as being illustrated with many beautiful images of the Falcons. The latter is no surprise as Red‐footed Falcons are highly attractive Merlin‐sized birds, the male's slate‐grey tinged blue, with sliver‐washed upper wings and red ‘trousers’, the female having a black‐barred grey back and tail, the head and underparts a rich ochre.

The editors begin the book with descriptions and a brief look at where the Red‐footed sits in the falcon family, noting that current genetic analysis has to date failed to find its home. Chapter 2 deals with the remarkable breeding habits of the Falcon. As with other family members, Red‐footeds do not build their own nests, but they are colonial nesters, a behaviour which seems extraordinary and in the main confines the species to using Rook nests, although the nests of small colonies of Magpies will also be taken over. Large colonies, the editors’ note resemble, an ‘apartment block full of parrakeets’.

Some birds have, by necessity, become solitary nesters, using anything available, from the massive nests of Common Buzzards to the less commodious structures of Wood Pigeons. The solitary breeders are much less successful at rearing young, colonies offering protection against predators (as well as the possibility of raiding a neighbour's pantry, and, perhaps, copulating with his/her partner). As elsewhere, the Hungarian landscape has changed over time, raising the number of solitary breeders from the historical 1% to about 10%, and the latter part of the book deals in detail with attempts to provide colonial nestboxes for the birds hoping to increase breeding success. But there are drawbacks to colonial nesting – if a Stone Marten discovers one, it can devastate it, taking eggs, chicks and adults and leaving it empty of birds.

Other chapters cover habitat and the species’ diet (eclectic, including insects, birds, mammals and reptiles, with a special enthusiasm for Spadefoot Toads during periods of rain – look out for the photo of a male with a toad on p. 27 and also for the one of best ‘alternative presentations’, a double page spread of breeding and pre‐migratory diets. The breeding chapters are particularly interesting with nuggets of surprising information – male and female Red‐footeds will sometimes share incubation, sitting side by side, each bird with half the clutch, although the female does all the feeding and brooding after hatching. The youngsters fledge very quickly, sometimes in as few as 20 days, although usually 23–27. For the winter the Falcons migrate to Africa, choosing areas such as the Kalahari Basin where they feed on emerging termites. The Hungarian team followed the migration by fitting birds from across the breeding range with satellite tags. The results were both instructive in terms of flight paths and wintering grounds, and depressing, all the birds tagged in the Carpathian Basin disappeared before they could provide information, and the bulk of the rest disappeared in Africa. But they did discover that some will fly ‘for days on end. Covering several thousand kilometres’. The book ends with descriptions of the conservation efforts in Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia and Romania. It has to be hoped that these efforts will be successful in maintaining a healthy population of a species this delightful book so excellently describes.

Richard Sale

P. Brichetti & G. Fracasso The Birds of Italy: Vol. 1, Anatidae‐Alcidae. In English. 512 pages, with numerous maps, 11 colour plates of habitats and 30 colour plates of some species . Latina, Italy: Edizione Belvedere, 2018, hardback, £74.99, ISBN: 9788889504604, www.nhbs.com

This first volume of a two‐book series, is a revised (and thoroughly updated) English summary of Brichetti and Fracasso's comprehensive nine‐volume Ornitologia Italiana , which is available in Italian only. The first volume of the Ornitologia Italiana series dates back to 2003, and the Italian ornithological framework has been considerably expanding in the 15 years since thanks in part to the increasing availability of online ornithological data‐sharing portals (the Italian ornithological sharing information portal Ornitho.it , launched in 2009, currently holds over 15 million records!). The ambition of the books is to stand as the reference for Italian ornithological knowledge across the 21^st century.

The book begins by providing a clear overview of the peculiar Italian geographical, bioclimatic and vegetational context, which is a very useful aid in interpreting species’ distribution patterns and explains the extraordinary biodiversity of the country. The book also includes a brief synthesis of the history of Italian ornithology, highlighting the contribution of both early and contemporary Italian ornithologists to the broadening of knowledge about avian taxonomy, distribution and behaviour. The book then goes ahead with detailed species’ accounts, the first volume covering 384 species (Anatidae to Alcidae). Each species account effectively summarizes all the available information to date on distribution, status and movements in concise text, including maps with updated range, phenology and population trend graphs (e.g. from the International Waterbird Census). One of the main strengths of the book is that the authors have strived to uncover and summarize the immense amount of work performed by Italian ornithologists working on a local scale, which is mostly reported in the so‐called ‘grey literature’, unavailable to a wider audience. This is exemplified by the fact that the last (and to date the only published!) national atlas of Italian breeding birds dates from 1983–1986, whereas in subsequent years over a hundred local atlases (at the regional or provincial level) have been published, most of which are not easily accessible. To compile the species accounts, the authors have painstakingly consulted publications on local and national bulletins and consulted most Italian bird experts. While awaiting the completion of the long‐awaited (and now hopefully forthcoming) second Italian atlas of breeding birds (2010–2016), whose data analysis is underway and is due to be released in 2020, I believe Brichetti and Fracasso's book fully achieves its goal of being a landmark publication for all those interested in the ecology and distribution of birds in Italy.

Diego Rubolini

Gombobaatar, S. & Leahy, C. Birds of Mongolia. 280 pages, numerous colour plates, some maps and photos . London: Bloomsbury Publishing (Helm Field Guides), 2019, paperback, £27.00, ISBN: 9780713687040; also available in two digital formats, www.bloomsbury.com

Dorj, G. & Smith, C. A field guide to the birds of Mongolia. 304 pages, numerous colour plates, some maps and photos . Oxford: John Beaufoy Publishing, 2019, paperback, £29.99, ISBN: 9781912081042, johnbeaufoy.com

Birding in Mongolia used to require carrying field guides to Russian and Chinese birds, Mongolia being a large landlocked country sandwiched between those giants. Now suddenly we have two competing bird guides! Although popularly imagined as all steppe and desert, Mongolia also has high mountains, forest‐steppe (forest on north‐facing slopes, steppe on south‐facing), large lakes with adjacent meadows and wetlands, rivers with gallery woodland and even a bit of arable farming – and thus a wide range of birds.

The Helm guide has been a long time in gestation. Back in 2002 when I was in Mongolia, its first projected incarnation, to be written by Axel Bräunlich and others, was expected to appear in the mid‐noughties. However, despite occasional appearances in Bloomsbury's publicity, that project fell by the wayside and has been belatedly replaced by this version. The Beaufoy guide, from this up and coming natural history publisher, was a surprise.

Both books’ layout is fairly standard – introductory material on the geography, habitats with photos, with (Helm only) conservation and some birding sites, followed by the identification plates with opposing text, including distribution maps. The Bloomsbury plates, by 12 different artists, are good and mostly show relevant plumage variation (sex, age, seasonal, etc.) and show all regularly occurring birds, with a couple of pages of accidentals or unrecorded ‘likelys’ at the back. The Beaufoy plates, by the first author, and also with an abridged series for vagrants, are less polished but clear and mostly competent, although the ‘jizz’ is patchy. In both books the text is inevitably brief, but generally adequate. The Helm book is sometimes unusually honest about the near inseparability of some species (e.g. Pintail and Swinhoe's Snipes, Gallinago stenura & G. megala and sand plovers Charadrius mongolus & C. leschenaultii ), birds that the Beaufoy book is more optimistic about identifying, despite misleading flight images. There are odd oversights – although illustrated, the Little Ringed Plover Charadrius dubius 's lack of a white wing‐bar is not amongst distinguishing features from Ringed Plover C. hiaticula mentioned in the Helm text; Beaufoy has it correctly. In both books the text on buzzards Buteo spp. goes nowhere near sorting out the colour overlaps and identification challenges, although the Beaufoy book makes a better stab – but oddly neither adequately addresses the prevalence of rufous‐plumage Upland Buzzards B. hemilasius that resemble Long‐legged B. rufinus . I remain puzzled by grey shrikes Lanius sp. seen at Khorgo, and a widespread large Siberian‐like tit but with a glossy cap and less rich colour. On grey shrikes the books differ on species definitions, as also on stonechats Saxicola , ‘herring’ gulls Larus , and in the Saker/Gyr Falcon complex Falco cherrug/rusticola , amongst others.

The distribution maps in both books, in any case too small, should be taken with a big pinch of salt, and indeed in the introductions they are stated to be ‘generalised indications of species distribution based on ecological zones and habitats’ (Helm) and ‘only an approximation … as data required to compile detailed distribution maps does not exist’ (Beaufoy) – i.e. not really distribution maps at all! It is hardly surprising that detail is lacking: Mongolia is a large country with a small human population and very few birdwatchers, and visiting birders tend to go to a limited range of localities – mostly highlighted in the Helm introduction and pinpointed in a tailpiece map in Beaufoy. Back in 2002 I was based in the under‐watched area of Tsetserleg, some 400 km west of the capital, and wrote up my observations in a Mongolian journal, but it appears that the Helm mapping method has overruled (and/or overlooked) facts on the ground, despite the authors claiming to have reviewed ‘all historical and recent ornithological records in Russian, German, English and Mongolian publications’. Several species that were commonly breeding in areas I visited are treated here as outside the breeding range or only on passage. Even the relatively well‐watched Khorgo‐Terkhiin National Park, which I also visited, appears to have been largely overlooked for the mapping by the Helm guide. As examples, Black Redstarts Phoenicurus ochruros , billed here as uncommon high‐altitude breeders nesting in rocky places, clearly nested in and around the town in Tsetserleg, and (Siberian) Stonechats Saxicola (torquata ) maura were breeding at Khorgo, way south of the mapped breeding range. The White‐winged (ex‐Velvet) Scoter Melanitta (f .) deglandii, with many hundreds in late July on the Khorgo lake Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur, is billed as an uncommon northern breeder (not at Khorgo) and uncommon on passage. Even the widespread Demoiselle Crane Grus virgo is excluded from Tsetserleg and Khorgo areas as breeders in the book's map! The Beaufoy mapping is better on all these species; its maps are also a bit bigger and clearer. In one species the two books are totally out of synch – the distribution shown for the Asian House Martin Delichon dasypus is a tiny northern area in the Helm guide but shown as an eastern swathe in Beaufoy; there is no overlap between the two. In general, the Helm book wins on better illustrations, but the Beaufoy guide, with acknowledged input from falconers, is more detailed on raptors, and elsewhere often has useful flight vignettes lacking in Helm.

The Helm introduction includes a frightening list of threats to Mongolia's birds, ranging from overgrazing and pesticides to impending mining mania and tourist developments next to pristine lakes. However, the list is incomplete – mass raptor mortality from vole control by poison, and loss of raptor food through uncontrolled shooting of marmots and wholesale annihilation of their colonies are not mentioned. On the plus side, also not mentioned, Mongolians generally don't hunt birds (meat not considered red enough!), although Saker Falcons are targetted illegally to sell abroad for the falconry trade. There is nothing about conservation in the Beaufoy guide. Both guides are clearly aimed solely at visitors not locals, although the Beaufoy guide does include Mongolian bird names (in Cyrillic script, not transliterated). Despite its omissions, the Helm guide's bibliography runs to 60 items; Beaufoy makes do with six, none of which are specific to Mongolia!

To sum up, the books are a vast improvement on carrying guides to Chinese and Russian birds around Mongolia, but birders will still be stumped (or misled) by some genera. Finally, Mongolians often have several names for the same locality, which can be very confusing, yet traditionally use Princeton & Woodstock Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. only one name for themselves, the ‘surname’ being a patronymic, rarely used in practice; the first author should thus be cited as Gombobataar, S. not ‘Sundev, G.’

Anthony Cheke

Bowler, J. Wildlife of Madeira and the Canary Islands. 224 pages, numerous colour photos . Princeton & Woodstock, UK: Princeton University Press (WildGuides), 2018, Paperback, £20.00, ISBN: 9780691170763, https://press.princeton.edu

‘Wildlife’ is a somewhat flexible term, and the subjects covered by this visitor‐oriented guide are limited to terrestrial vertebrates, cetaceans, turtles, dragonflies and butterflies: birds take up well over half of the book. For birds at least, the author (or his packager WildGuides) has made a serious effort to overcome the common shortcomings of photographic guides, that of birds presented in different positions with few plumage variations. Most are shown in the same aspect, side‐on and with different sexes and plumages shown, although the latter only minimally for gulls. The arrangement is partly by habitat – seabirds are grouped together, as are waterbirds and waders – although landbirds are mostly by taxa, with a catch‐all category ‘colourful birds’ for woodpeckers, hoopoe, bee‐eater, etc., which oddly includes shrikes and starling, but not the two introduced parakeets.

While I would stick to the black Collins Guide for bird identification, this book has the advantage of maps showing distribution by island, more detailed information on distribution within the islands and of course the addition of the other wildlife – whale‐watching is a big draw in these Atlantic islands and there are the endemic giant lizards (Gallotia spp.). Oddly scientific names are omitted except in the checklist appended at the back, alphabetical by genus, which also includes Spanish and Portuguese names. This checklist arrangement is daft, because if you don't know the Latin name (which the text doesn't tell you) you can't look it up. There is geographical, habitat, conservation and wildlife site information (a bit too generalized) in a fairly generous introductory section.

Much modified by humans over millenia during which many species became extinct (briefly mentioned), the islands still support a fair number of endemics, although most are plants and invertebrates. Several former bird subspecies have however been upgraded to species recently – Canary ‘Kinglet’ (= Goldcrest) Regulus teneriffae , Madeira Firecrest R. madeirae , Canary Chiffchaff Phylloscopus canariensis and the endangered Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch Fringilla polatzeki split from the better‐known one on Tenerife F. teydea . For the hardcore there's the insoluble puzzle of separating the two Madeiran Pterodroma petrels (deserta & madeira ) in the field.

A bit pricey perhaps, but if you are interested in more than just birds, definitely worth it.

Anthony Cheke

Rose, L. The Long Spring. 272 pages, linocut illustrations by Richard Allen . London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018, hardback, £16.99, ISBN: 9781472936677, www.bloomsbury.com

In February 2016 author Laurence Rose crossed the Mediterranean from North Africa and set off on a series of journeys northwards to the Arctic coast of Norway, all the while keeping pace with the arrival of spring. This is his account of that journey. With its hardback format, striking linocut illustrated cover and slightly furry paper, the book appears to be deliberately reminiscent of the classic travel/countryside books of the last century. Is it bidding for a place on our bookshelf next to Edward Thomas's 1913 classic, In Pursuit of Spring ?

Between the covers it is very much about the condition of natural Europe now. This is a well‐written and readable book and we quickly become aware that our guide is a remarkable polymath. A naturalist, conservation planner and administrator, composer and linguist he is an eloquent and knowledgeable companion. Rose's default style in this book is the rich descriptive prose of the classic travel or nature writer, although there are passages when the factual scientist takes over or the frustrated conservationist vents his spleen. With all senses finely tuned, the author's multiple talents evoke for us the sights, sounds and smells of the journey north through Spain, France, the UK, Sweden, Finland and Norway. On the journey with him, perhaps slightly behind or ahead, are storks, cranes and swallows. The changes taking place in the resident flora and fauna are not neglected.

Rose's technical knowledge of music adds an extra dimension to the descriptions. I'm sure that musicians will relish this, although as a non‐musician I struggled, in some places, to keep a grasp of the author's perceptions. This didn't, however, spoil for me the remarkable story of the visit made by the composer Olivier Messiaen to the coast near Banyuls in southern France in 1957 in order to capture impressions for his piano piece Catalogue d'Oiseaux . Armed with the score Rose finds the exact piece of coast where Messiaen recorded his impression of the Blue Rock Thrush and the Thekla Lark, a species at that time fairly new to the area, and finds both still present. Rose's musical skills enable him to separate Thekla from Crested Lark, as did Messiaen's 60 years earlier.

In Catalunya Rose discovers British bird ringers at work in the marshes saved, by local people, from the expansion of the Costa Brava. Extracts from the work of two local Catalan poets guide visitors here and the author translates these for us. In France he despairs that areas designated as nature reserves are still dominated by shooting interests, in England and Scotland too many raptors are still being illegally persecuted, and in North Wales he learns that the local Welsh names of fauna, flora and landscape features are in danger of disappearing forever. At the edge of the Arctic he expresses his fears for the future of the rich seabird colonies faced with the consequences of global warming.

I recommend this book. It is a good read and would not sit uncomfortably alongside the classic works of its genre. I would commend it in particular to those actively involved in conservation. Its author led the RSPB's European programme in the 1980s and has now been able to check out the fate of some major trans‐European conservation initiatives on the ground. He has found the outcomes very mixed and has gained valuable insights on our behalf. He concludes that we must work harder to re‐establish a cultural connection to nature if our efforts to preserve and restore our natural heritage are to succeed.

Barry Gray

Also received

A.K. Leidner & G.M. Buchanan (Eds). Satellite Remote Sensing for Conservation Action. 323 pages, b&w maps and figures and 12 page colour insert of maps and photos, Cambridge University Press, 2018, paperback, £34.99, ISBN: 9781108456708 , www.cambridge.org

This interesting book examines the use of remote sensing to gather repeat data by examining its use in a number of case studies, these covering such diverse topics as east Asian wetlands, wildfires across the planet and Blue Whale movements off the US west coast, the latter in an attempt to reduce ship strikes. The book shows that use of satellite data can be both extremely useful and inexpensive for aiding conservation in both land and sea ecosystems.

Jane, K. & Thayer, W. The Wall of Birds. 224 pages, colour throughout . New York: HarperDesign, 2018, Hardback, £24.99 (from NHBS), ISBN: 9780062687869, www.nhbs.com

To celebrate the centennial of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology the artist Jane Kim was commissioned to create murals depicting the bird life of Earth, continent by continent, and the evolution of birds on the walls of the Lab's Visitor Centre. The phenomenally ambitious project took 3 years to complete, resulting in representatives from all 243 families of birds being depicted life‐size and in full colour on a world map. The detail on the paintings is remarkable, the way they are organized equally so. The Magnificent Frigatebird is perched daintily on a sprinkler head of the fire protection system, while the evolutionary chain of birds advances down the handrail of a stairway. Those who have the good fortune to visit Cornell can enjoy the real thing. Those who cannot manage a visit can enjoy this gorgeous book.