A Photographic Guide to Birds of Israel and the Middle East

by Richard Porter, David M. Cottridge

-- Distinctive thumbnail tabs outlining each family group to enable quick identification
-- Compact, easy-to-use format, the ideal pocket-size travelling companion
-- Authoritative text describing key identification features
-- Full-color photographs illustrating key species

144 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2007

About the author

Richard^^^Porter

Ornithology

Career background: over 50 years (and counting) in conservation and ornithology.

Richard Porter worked for the RSPB for many years (1968-1999) and then for BirdLife International, particularly in the Middle East.

He first went to Turkey in 1966, surveying wetlands, and that autumn (with others) counted the raptors migrating through the Bosphorus – the first comprehensive count of raptor migration at a site in the Old World.

Reviews

[Bennet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably best for only the casual birder. The information is neither efficiently nor well presented. The images (photos--I must confess to preferring illustrations) are rather small to make room for the accompanying paragraph of narrative description. Typically a single photo of a representative plumage, however resolution is low, size is small, and field marks are hard to make out. I think a lot of sacrifices were made to force the book into its small dimensions, but perhaps a more well-thought out layout could have provided room for more/better images while reducing text (e.g. using range maps instead of describing localities where the bird is found, using the Roger Tory Peterson method of highlighting field marks on the images, etc.)

[Tracy King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought for our trip to Israel and it was really helpful and easy to use to identify the birds.