The Handbook of Bird Families

by Jonathan Elphick

In 2014, Firefly Books published the beautiful and comprehensive reference, World of Birds by Jonathan Elphick. Sales and reviews of the book were "The value-to-cost ratio makes this a worthy addition to the ornithology collection in most libraries."
-- Booklist (starred review) "An excellent reference book that will occupy shelves in many libraries. For those needing just one general bird reference, this might be it. Highly recommended."
-- Choice The World of Birds had two parts, the first, "Birds," provided in-depth coverage of birds in general, such as anatomy, behavior, reproduction, range and more. The second part was a species directory. Since then, however, many changes have occurred in the classification of species, an expected outcome of the increasing use of DNA analysis, and this is the updated second part as a stand-alone book. This ultimate handbook contains a comprehensive survey of the world's birds, reflecting the latest classification changes to the Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World . It includes an introduction to each of the bird orders and a detailed account and concise fact panel for every one of the 234 families. It details the appearance, behavior and lifestyle of the family members, while a glossary, further reading list and an index ensure easy reference. Readers can learn more about each bird species. What's the difference between a crow and a jay? How many species of sparrow are there? What song do cuckoos really sing? All the key facts about the world's orders and families of birds are in The Handbook of Bird Families . Reformatted, resized and fully updated, it is the ideal up-to-date companion to the highly acclaimed reference The World of Birds published in 2014. With clear, lively text, informative fact boxes and special photography from award-winning wildlife photographer David Tipling and other top photographers, The Handbook of Bird Families belongs on the shelf of everyone interested in birds. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) is the global authority on the status of the natural world. It oversees the IUCN Red List, which catalogues those plants and animals facing a higher risk of global extinction (Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable). BirdLife is dedicated to the survival of bird species in the wild.

Genres: Birds, Nonfiction, Nature, Science

416 pages, Paperback

Published March 29, 2019

Reviews

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent at conveying the global diversity of birds (there are almost 11 000 species named and I found myself encountering genera and families that I had never heard of before on a regular basis within). The photographs are excellent, though often small. The text is also very small print, which could be a challenge to some readers.

Each family of birds receives at least 1 or two paragraphs of broad overview as well as a fact-box with quick stats, some families which are hyper-diverse being allotted 3-5 pages of text. The text mainly catalogues diversity, by describing which subfamilies the family is divided into, how many and which genera are in what parts of the world and brief snippets of natural history and behaviour throughout.

There were editorial errors on a regular basis unfortunately... it felt like paragraphs had been reassigned to different Bird Families after being written because of taxonomic changes or as though they were pieces of a previous book, shifted into a new context without being thoroughly proofread. This caused some confusion, but not too much, and overall the amount of information within about bird diversity was absolutely worth the occasional re-read of a confusing paragraph. I think it could have used a more thorough editor but overall very good book cataloguing the world's avi-fauna.

[Barry Avis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Handbook Of Bird Families by Jonathan Elphick is a coffee table sized reference book which shows describes the orders and families of all the birds of the world. Each section starts with a description of the order of birds being described and then a table that identified such things as range, food, eggs and conservation status. The chapter then describes various members of the family, their characteristics, some biology and highlights specific species that fall into that order.
This will be a book I go back to again and again as I want to refresh myself about specific families and species. It is definitely a reference book to be had by every avid birdwatcher.
My only gripe is that although each section highlights how many genus and species there are for each family I would have liked a list in each section of which birds fall into that family, maybe just the scientific names to get around the variation in names across the globe.
Overall, a great reference book that I will use multiple times.

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good reference book