Book reviews
, & . Birds of Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan. (Helm Field Guides.) 336 pages, 143 colour plates, 16 photographs and many maps. London: Christopher Helm, 2012. Paperback, £35.00, ISBN 978-0-7136-7038-7. Website: http://www.bloomsbury.com.
Central Asia is a region that has always fascinated birdwatchers. Stunning landscapes, from the endless steppes of Kazakhstan to the peaks of the Tien Shan and Pamir ranges, host many sought-after bird species. Black Lark Melanocorypha yeltoniensis and White-winged Lark Melanocorypha leucoptera, Ibisbill Ibidorhyncha struthersii, Pander's Ground Jay Podoces panderi and Saxaul Sparrow Passer ammodendri make the countries along the Silk Road a prime destination for every birder. Since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, large parts of the region are now accessible, but there has never been a comprehensive field guide covering the entire territory. The long-anticipated Birds of Central Asia fills this gap and will remain the standard reference for many years to come.
Importantly, a short introductory section comments on definition and usage with regard to ‘Central Asia’ and ‘Middle Asia’; it also illustrates the region's biomes and provides essential information about local organizations and web-resources. The text of the species accounts is concise, emphasizes the main identification features in italics and also contains short descriptions of voice and habitat.
The colour plates were contributed by 13 different artists, and some have been reused from other (published and forthcoming) field guides. This introduces some heterogeneity and made it difficult to include recent advances in identification; for example, there is only one painting of a Sociable Lapwing Vanellus gregarius in breeding plumage, whereas it is now widely known that the sexes can be separated quite easily in spring. However, using existing illustrations doubtless speeds up publication and the artwork is of a high standard throughout.
Much work has gone into the preparation of the distribution maps for 618 species, which are now the most authoritative source available on the distribution of birds in Central Asia. Based on Soviet-period maps, they have been substantially updated using various local databases and consultation with experts. They even show some recent range shifts and newly discovered populations, such as the breeding grounds of the Large-billed Reed Warbler Acrocephalus orinus in the Tajik Pamirs found by Ayé, Schweizer and S. T. Hertwig in 2009 (see J. Avian Biol. 41: 452–459).
Taxonomy and nomenclature are mainly based on the 3rd edition of the Howard & Moore Complete Checklist (Dickinson 2003) but great efforts were made by the authors to include more recent findings from phylogenetic research. All deviations from Dickinson (2003) are discussed in detail, and references given to the original publications.
I have seen many raised eyebrows among birdwatchers and Central Asian ornithologists flicking through this book for the first time and finding familiar taxa renamed or reclassified. Examples include Lesser Short-toed Lark Calandrella rufescens heinei, which is now treated as a subspecies of Asian Short-toed Lark Calandrella cheleensis and Central Asian Desert Sparrow Passer simplex zarudnyi, which has been given full species status and is now called Zarudny's Sparrow Passer zarudnyi. The rather distinct ‘Turkestan Tit’ Parus (major) bokharensis has been lumped with Great Tit, and a similar fate has befallen Yellow-breasted Tit (now placed within the Azure Tit group as Cyanistes cyanus flavipectus). It seems likely that Central Asia, where there is much still to discover, will remain fertile ground for taxonomists. As the authors state, some of the recent changes are not set in stone, and species groups such as the shrikes of the phoenicuroides-isabellinus complex or the penduline tits Remiz spp. (split into three species in the book) might yield taxonomic surprises upon closer inspection.
Birdwatchers visiting Central Asia usually concentrate on a few easily accessible locations, whereas especially in Kazakhstan, birdwatching activities by local citizens have been booming countrywide over the last few years, and identification and taxonomy are subject to lively discussion online (e.g. http://www.birds.kz/index.php?l=en). Nevertheless, vast areas remain unvisited and hence there is a lack of data that could be used for research and conservation purposes. A drawback in this regard is the absence of local names in the book, which somewhat limits its use for the local promotion of conservation. Adding the still widely used Russian names would have been desirable; perhaps also the Farsi bird names for those in Afghanistan and Tajikistan who do not know Russian, though that might have been asking too much of the authors and publisher. However, this does not spoil the overall good impression, and visiting birdwatchers should certainly bring a copy with them.
Johannes Kamp
. Moa: The Life and Death of New Zealand's Legendary Bird. 300 pages, numerous colour and black-and-white photographs and other illustrations. Nelson, NZ: Craig Potton Publishing, 2012. Hardback, NZ$49.99, ISBN: 978-1-877517-84-6. Website: http://www.craigpotton.co.nz.
I have at home a battered copy of W. R. B. Oliver's classic New Zealand Birds (A. H. & A. W. Reed, 1955) inscribed ‘In appreciation of your help on the first great moa dig of the 21st Century, 20 July 2001, Trevor Worthy’. The dig was the Bell Hill Vineyard Swamp in the North Canterbury region where, several thousand years ago, the deep mud around a spring became a graveyard for many moa. The date was my birthday and Trevor Worthy was the renowned moa researcher leading the digging team. It was a privilege to take part in the excavation of the mighty remains and, as it turned out and as author Quinn Berentson reveals, to be there at the start of a remarkable new era of moa discoveries.
Berentson does not mention what sparked his own interest in moa, but his journey to follow the moa around New Zealand ‘to make…sense of its mysteries’ rapidly grew in scope and eventually resulted in this fascinating and attractive book. In it, the reader is led through the history of moa, starting with the revelation of the first fossil evidence by Richard Owen in 1839; steadily piecing together the development of moa research over the following 160 years; then bringing it all up to date with the slew of 21st century breakthroughs made possible by molecular analyses.
It is only fairly late on in the book that the reader gets a sense of the life and death of moa; the first two-thirds of the book are less about moa and more about the people that found, described and argued over their bones. I was beginning to wonder about the choice of subtitle, but the delayed arrival of biological and ecological detail in the text does rather reflect the development of moa knowledge, in that, for much of the past 170 years, they remained remarkably enigmatic. Perhaps the clearest example of this is the question of how many species of moa existed. By 1873, Owen had already named nearly 20 species; Frederick Hutton brought this up to 26 species in 1892, topped by Lord Walter Rothschild in 1907 with his 38 recognized species! In 2002, Trevor Worthy and Richard Holdaway's landmark Lost World of the Moa (Indiana University Press) included 11 species; only a year later, DNA analyses proved the extraordinary extent of reversed sexual dimorphism in giant moa (Dinornithidae). and brought the total down to 10. A few years later, another two sexually dimorphic species were collapsed into one, leading to a modern moa taxonomy (July 2012) that recognizes only nine species in six genera and three different families: Dinornithidae, Megalapterygidae and Emeidae. For the time being at least …
The story of moa is extremely complex and is related engagingly by Berentson. Along the way, he also divulges some of the history of European settlement in New Zealand, with its frontier towns and gold rushes, and explores the development of natural science amongst the fledgling colonial scientific community. The earlier colonization of Aotearoa by Polynesian explorers and the emergence of the Maori is not neglected either; as researchers uncovered more about moa, so more was discovered about those who had hunted them – and brought about their extinction. For me, some of the most compelling sections of the book deal with the vast extent of the coastal butchery camps, where moa were processed on an unimaginable scale, having been shipped downriver by hunting expeditions into the backcountry.
Inevitably, one book cannot cover everything and a few omissions left some key details unexplained. For example, how did the first specimen, the fragment of femur known as the Rule Bone, get from Owen's office at the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) to the Natural History Museum (not the ‘British National Museum’ as it is referred to once or twice), where it was recently placed on permanent display. For the record, John Rule sold it not to the RCS, but to a collector in Bristol, from whose collection it passed to the then British Museum (BM) in 1873. Likewise, Owen's own move from the RCS in 1856 to the BM as superintendent of the natural history department is not covered, though this was an extremely significant career move that ultimately resulted in the creation of the Natural History Museum – now custodian to arguably the most important moa collection outside New Zealand, including Rothschild's wonderful display of mounted moa still in the galleries at his former museum in Tring. I may be biased (I do share Owen's birthday after all), but there are some key destinations for the moa pilgrim beyond New Zealand. Also left out was mention of Ron Scarlett's role in the excavation of the Pyramid Valley moa swamp and his subsequent enormously important palaeornithological career at the Canterbury Museum.
Overall, though, Berentson's Moa is a timely contribution to the literature on New Zealand's avifauna, and brings these magnificent, strange birds back to life, albeit, sadly, only on the page. It is beautifully produced, with a high-quality feel and excellent photographs and illustrations. It is very much a New Zealand book, with its references to ‘jandals’ and ‘No. 8 wire’; however, it is not just a book for New Zealanders but should be appreciated by anyone with an interest in moa or, indeed, New Zealand. The book has been nominated as a finalist in the Royal Society of New Zealand's Science Book Prize; I wish it success and hope it encourages more people to discover moa for themselves.
Joanne Cooper
& . Avon Atlas 2007–11. 197 pages, with many maps, diagrams and tables. Bristol: R. L. Bland and M. Dadds, 2012. Slide-bound paperback, £10.00 (includes UK postage) from first author at 18a Knoll Hill, Bristol, BS9 1RA. No ISBN given.
K. Bowey & M Newsome. (eds) The Birds of Durham. 1014 pages, with a map, colour and black-and-white photographs, drawings, graphs and tables. [Durham]: Durham Bird Club, 2012. Hardback, £30.00, ISBN 978-1-874701-03-3. Website: http://www.durhambirdclub.org.
Bland and Dadds is the first atlas to be based largely on data collected between 2007 and 2011 for the forthcoming national work. It was designed to be compatible with the last Avon atlas [Bland, R.L. & Tully, J. (1992) Atlas of Breeding Birds in Avon 1988–91. Bristol], though winter data were not included in that. Coverage has been much improved. The reader should be aware of two facts: first, the area covered is the so-called ‘Avon Region’ (not the former county of Avon or the present Avon Recording Area), and therefore includes over 80 tetrads which are wholly or partly in Somerset, but excludes a few in South Gloucestershire; secondly, no attempt is made to differentiate at tetrad level between possible, probable and confirmed breeding, distinctions often due to variations in observer effort, though these results can be found in an appendix. The approach is strongly statistical: to show distribution by tetrad, to estimate populations, and to list gains and losses: 22 species are thought to have expanded since 1991, and 17 to have contracted.
This work follows a long tradition in and around Bristol, where the energies of many urban and suburban observers have been directed towards relatively common species and there have been exceptionally close links with BTO surveys such as the former CBC and the current BBS and Bird Track. The second author was responsible for the maps. No species has more than one map; the unusual system of notation for both seasons is described in the Introduction, but it has to be searched for and might with advantage have been given more emphasis. In addition to the maps, there are extensive appendices with tabulated numbers. The Introduction includes habitat maps, among them one showing tetrads with reservoirs, lakes and ponds.
It is a most unusual atlas, an extraordinarily thorough work. It lacks illustrations and might appear somewhat stark to the general reader; the text would have benefited from another read-through in proof. The cost of all this information is no more than that of an average county bird report.
The first comprehensive avifauna for the county since G.W. Temperley's 1951 History of the Birds of Durham (Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Northumberland, Durham & Newcastle upon Tyne, vol. IX), Bowey and Newsome's new work is the product of an elaborate plan, which followed the publication of A Summer Atlas of the Breeding Birds of County Durham (S. Westerberg & K. Bowey, 2000); eight further authors have made substantial contributions. The coastal areas, including the northern part of the short-lived county of Cleveland, had been thoroughly covered since the 1960s by six local works.
Before 1974, Durham was a triangle with a wide altitudinal range and entirely natural borders formed by the sea, the Rivers Tyne and Tees and the Pennine watershed. To this, part of the North Riding of Yorkshire was added, though its birds were still included in J. Mather's Birds of Yorkshire (1986). Durham ornithology was usually linked with that of Northumberland before 1900, and the annual reports were not separated until 1970.
This is a leviathan among county avifaunas. On word-count, it is the longest of all, exceeding even the three-volume ones for Norfolk and Sussex. It is 10 times the length of the latest avifauna of Northumberland, a county twice the size of Durham. Lavish sponsorship has enabled its publication at a modest price and it is a triumph of organization. For resident observers it will be a much consulted bible, and any authors who might contemplate its sequel in around 2025 will recoil from the task in despair. Outsiders will soon be absorbed in the accounts of Black Grouse Tetrao tetrix, Fulmar Fulmarus glacialis, Pennine waders, seabird passage off the grim coastline and the Gateshead Tower for Kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla, but they will also find fascinating historical glimpses, such as the Oystercatchers Haematopus ostralegus and Redshanks Tringa totanus consumed by the Durham Benedictines (who also enjoyed eiderdown cushions) and good biographical notes. Modern rarities are lovingly discussed; there are even histograms for the occurrence of Greenish Warblers Phylloscopus trochiloides.
With great reluctance, I must express reservations about such a huge volume. It is uncomfortably heavy, and its binding is far too weak. The text is of variable quality and needed a ruthless editor to cut it to manageable size (say, 700 pages?) by tidying up the syntax and perhaps removing information, such as that on world distribution, that can better be found elsewhere. One expects more use of graphics, if only to break up the dense pages of long-lined text. There is one, rather inadequate, black-and-white map. Yet perhaps these are quibbles, and one ought simply to be grateful that so much has been done.
David Ballance
. Parrots: The Animal Answer Guide. xvi + 237 pages, colour and black-and-white photographs, maps, graphs and tables. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012. Paperback, US$24.95, £13.00, ISBN 1-4214-0544-X, 978-1-4214-0544-5. Website: http://www.press.jhu.edu.
Few animal groups capture the imagination like parrots (Psittaciformes). Familiar to most as the large colourful pet with a destructive tendency and an amazing ability to mimic, parrots invoke visions of tropical rainforests and exotic locales. Many people will also be familiar with the work of Irene Pepperberg, demonstrating the apparently exceptional intelligence of Alex, the African Grey Parrot Psittacus erithacus. In fact, as this book makes clear, the Psittaciformes are a diverse and widespread order. It ranges from the minute pygmy parrots Micropsitta spp. of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, which weigh as little as a Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus (Buff-faced Pygmy Parrot Micropsitta pusio weighs just 11.5 g) and eat lichen, through Patagonian Burrowing Parrots Cyanoliseus patagonus nesting in cliff-side colonies up to 70 000 strong, to the nocturnal Kakapo Strigops habroptila of New Zealand, flightless and weighing 2–4 kg.
Parrots is one of a series that includes books on rabbits, geckos and porcupines, all written by researchers who have worked with the animal group in question. Matt Cameron, who previously authored the book Cockatoos (CSIRO Publishing, 2007; reviewed in Ibis 151: 213–214), has also studied the ecology of the Glossy Black Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus lathami in Australia. Cameron brings his background into this volume, often punctuating his overviews of parrot ecology with anecdotes from his research. This approach is surprisingly successful, engaging the reader in a personal tone and giving more insight into the reported scientific studies.
The book is divided into sections covering different aspects of parrot biology, ecology and behaviour: there are chapters that investigate form and function, reproduction and development, and parrots in stories and literature. Engagingly, there are also two chapters entitled ‘Parrot Problems (from a human viewpoint)’ and ‘Parrot Problems (from a parrot's viewpoint)’, contrasting questions such as ‘Can parrots be a nuisance in urban areas?’ with ‘Will parrots be affected by global warming?’. Each of these chapters reads like a separate review, covering the current state of knowledge in the field in question, and delving into case studies from recent research.
It is difficult to know how to classify this book. At first glance, it is over-enthusiastic and bouncy, aimed at young readers and pet-lovers, with questions like ‘How do parrots spend their day?’, and ‘Are parrots fussy eaters?’. However, once the reader has burrowed through the forced cheerfulness of the up-beat format, the text is encyclopaedic and unexpectedly complex, reviewing behaviour, evolution and ecology. Anybody with a passion for parrots and parrot research (and there are plenty of us out there), whether professional, amateur or pet-owner, will find plenty to engage and maintain their interest in this text.
Lucy Aplin
, & . Roberts Geographic Variation of Southern African Birds. 279 pages (+ 5 pages for notes), 105 colour plates, numerous colour and monochrome photographs, colour maps, 3 appendices. Cape Town: The Trustees of the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund, 2012. Paperback with plastic cover, R220.00, ISBN 978-1-920602-00-0. Website: http://www.robertsbirds.co.za.
We have here a description in words and colour of ‘613 races from 224 species of birds found in southern Africa’ … representing ‘about 70% of the subspecies described for the region’, or rather subspecies recognized, with almost as many again in synonymy. The authors detail (in an appendix) their source material, largely specimens from the extensive and impeccable series in the Durban Natural Science Museum. The compact book is presented as a general guide to the most ‘obvious’ examples of variation, and not a scientific assessment of their validity. This study is a direct offshoot of Roberts – Birds of Southern Africa (7th edn: P.A.R. Hockey et al. 2005; reviewed in Ibis 149: 432–433), with a few changes, as of genera, in line with recent publications. Errors in this edition of Roberts relevant to the present topic have mostly been corrected.
The 35 introductory pages illustrate and discuss subspecies concepts and evolution. There are profiles of major southern Africa taxonomists: Austin Roberts, Phillip Clancey and Michael Stuart Irwin, but Jack Vincent and Jack Winterbottom might also have been mentioned. A table shows how important are the collections housed in the subregion, headed by 90 000 specimens in Bulawayo (National Museum of Zimbabwe, many from southcentral Africa), 35 000 in Durban and 32 000 in Pretoria (Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, formerly Transvaal Museum). Only the last has a catalogue of type specimens published (W.R.J. Dean (2007) Ann. Transvaal Mus. 44: 67–121).
The task of deciding which taxa to illustrate has been tackled well, and extremely polytypic species are dealt with in detail – for the Bar-throated Apalis Apalis thoracica, 13 races are described, 10 of them illustrated. Among omissions, it would have been useful to include the recently separated Karoo Thrush Turdus smithi in the plate of the Olive Thrush Turdus olivaceus. An appendix lists polytypic species not treated, most being taxa indistinguishable in the field. It is difficult for an artist to illustrate subtle differences in colour and for the printer to reproduce them faithfully. Ingrid Weiersbye has avoided the unnatural gloss she gave to several of her plates in Roberts – VIIth edition, and many of her illustrations present adequately the differences described between subspecies. Groups in which colour differences are subtle and have presented the artist with problems include Cisticola species (shown and described in breeding dress) and larks (Alaudidae). Palaearctic readers might have difficulty recognizing the Willow Warblers Phylloscopus trochilus here. The nominate race of Cape Robin-Chat Cossypha caffra has its white eyebrow less broad than in namaquensis, but this can be emphasized when the species is alarmed, and may have limited value in the field. Two forms of Jacobin Cuckoo Clamator jacobinus are illustrated, but differences are only in size, which the authors admit would probably not be noticeable in the field.
The texts are thorough, and being by just two authors (Chittenden and Allan) they present a uniformity of treatment lacking in some of the multi-author contributions in Roberts – VIIth edition. As well as dealing with key characters for separation of subspecies, the accounts include comments on the etymology of subspecific names. There are a few minor slips: Harold Walter Bell-Marley (1874–1945) was not born in 1873, and the first name of R. D. Bradfield (1882–1949), Rupert, is omitted. Two errors remain from Roberts – VIIth edition concerning type locality restrictions: there exists an earlier one for Helmeted Guineafowl Numida meleagris coronatus (C.W. Mackworth-Praed & C.H.B. Grant (1936) Ibis (13) 6: 370–371), and for Spur-winged Goose Plectropterus gambensis niger a correction was published (J. Vincent (1984) Ostrich 55: 219). The replacement here of the name of Levaillant's Cisticola Cisticola tinniens brookei by C. t. elegans is not explained (the latter has 129 years’ precedence).
Maps showing the distributions of subspecies in southern Africa are based on those in Roberts – VIIth edition, with some improvements (e.g. the absence of the nominate race of Pale-crowned Cisticola Cisticola cinnamomeus from the Zambezi Valley is now clear). Rather similar green and blue-green are the main colours used, and some other colours can be confusing (see the maps of Southern Boubou Laniarius ferrugineus).
The plates in Roberts – VIIth edition generally lack sexual, age and racial plumages. Chittenden et al. usefully treat this last aspect, although there remain difficulties in trying to adapt such a subtle and often subjective topic as subspecific variation to use outside a well-stocked museum. Ideal illustrations do not take into account the effects of wear, and experienced ringers can testify that many bird species are seen to be far more variable in plumage than supposed when large series are handled. In assessing the undoubted qualities of this book I benefited from being able to compare it directly to selected series in the Natural History Museum at Tring (thanks to Robert Prŷs-Jones and his colleagues).
R. J. Dowsett
, . & The Sound Approach. Catching the Bug: A Sound Approach Guide to the Birds of Poole Harbour. 2 accompanying CDs, 290 pages, numerous colour photographs, maps, paintings, drawings and sonograms. Poole: The Sound Approach, 2012. Hardback, £34.95, ISBN 978-90-810933-0-9. Websites: http://www.soundapproach.co.uk, http://www.birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk.
‘What is this book?’ I asked myself, but I couldn't come up with a definitive answer. It could be perceived as a glorified diary of over 20 years of dedicated birding. Equally, it could be seen as an educational tool to help improve birding by ear and inspire people to appreciate the wildlife of their local area. However, if your local area happens to be one of the most picturesque and biodiverse parts of England, it isn't surprising that the latest in the Sound Approach series offers much more than the title suggests.
Like previous publications, it is arranged in a landscape A4 hardback format, with 2 CDs stored inside the front cover. These contain 98 self-recorded tracks of bird songs, calls and soundscapes, which accompany a wonderful array of high-quality images, annotated sonograms and maps. The 27 chapters cover a diversity of topics, ranging from the ancient history of Poole Harbour, through detailed studies of the area's Dartford Warblers Sylvia undata, wintering Chiffchaffs Phylloscopus collybita and breeding Nightjars Caprimulgus europaeus, to visible migration, wetland bird surveys, and bird races. Throughout are high-quality plates provided by Killian Mullarney. While each chapter stands alone and could be read over a coffee, the underlying theme of the book is a thorough appreciation of the harbour's natural history, with a focus on the conservation of the area's birds in the face of climate change and human disturbance.
Although some may see the guide as slightly self-indulgent (containing photographs of weddings and beers at the pub, for example), this just adds to the picture that the book paints: a community of passionate and skilled field naturalists that the reader can relate to. In this sense, the guide is as much a story as a learning tool. However, learning bird sounds is much easier if they can be put into context. For me, one of the greatest achievements of this book is to provide a guide in which the reader can contextualize the songs and calls on the accompanying CDs. There is also humour throughout, though perhaps not all of this will have universal appeal.
One minor improvement might be to have the calls available to download in MP3 format, so they can be listened to on a portable device. With the excellent Sound Approach and The Birds of Poole Harbour websites (the latter launched to coincide with the release of this book), I wouldn't be surprised if recordings were available online soon.
Poole Harbour is a special place for me. Growing up, I spent every sunny day of the summer holidays I could there. This book brings back happy memories of searching for Dartford Warblers and Nightjars, Spoonbills Platalea leucorodia and Little Egrets Egretta garzetta. While part of me wants to keep it under wraps, I am sure this excellent book will inspire people to go down and appreciate what has to be one of the best year-round birding sites in Britain.
Ross Crates
D Ferguson. (ed.) The Birds of Buckinghamshire. 2nd edn. 393 pages, with many maps, colour photographs, graphs and tables. [Aylesbury]: Buckinghamshire Bird Club, 2012. Hardback, £25.00, ISBN 978-0-907823-94-0. Website: http://www.bucksbirdclub.co.uk.
This is the second edition of the 1993 work by P. Lack and D. Ferguson (reviewed in Ibis 136: 246–247) and is sensibly produced in similar format, with no change in the order of species. It is in many ways a model county avifauna. Its most notable features are the tetrad-scale breeding maps derived from the previous work and the forthcoming national Atlases and the winter ones from the latter; the coverage in these seems to have been nearly complete. Digital photography has enabled all species and major habitats to be illustrated and moderate use has been made of histograms. There is a well-arranged site guide.
Buckinghamshire is a tall county on the map, linking the edge of London and the Thames Valley (where ground has been lost to Berkshire) to the Ouse and the Midlands. The south has the Chiltern Hills, suburbia and extensive beech woods; the north, now without its distinctive elms, is no longer the remote place of 50 years ago, since it has become dependent on the vast spread of Milton Keynes.
There are waters at both ends: some pits have been lost to Berkshire, but the Jubilee River and Dorney Rowing Lake have been created; and in the north at Milton Keynes there are the Linford Reserve and Willen Lake, and in between, a good reservoir at Weston Turville.
As elsewhere, gains in raptors and waterbirds have been balanced by losses in the birds of farmland and riverside wetland. The reintroduction of Red Kites Milvus milvus has been spectacularly successful; less famous recent developments are the breeding of Goosander Mergus merganser and Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus in the north, of Peregrines Falco peregrinus at Aylesbury, and of Common Terns Sterna hirundo at several raft-colonies. Common Buzzards Buteo buteo have advanced and Ravens Corvus corax have begun to do so. On the debit side, Common Redstarts Phoenicurus phoenicurus, Wood Warblers Phylloscopus sibilatrix and Tree Pipits Anthus trivialis have gone from the woods, and Linnets Carduelis cannabina and Yellowhammers Emberiza citrinella are much reduced in the fields.
A better general map would have been helpful; what other use can there be for blank end-papers?
David Ballance
, & . et al. Population Demography of Northern Spotted Owls. (Studies in Avian Biology No. 40.) xii + 106 pages, 12 black-and-white figures and 22 tables, 8 appendices. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press for the Cooper Ornithological Society, 2011. Hardback, US$39.95, £27.95, ISBN 978-0-520-27008-4. Website: http://www.ucpress.edu.
Forest resource management, on behalf of the Northern Spotted Owl Strix occidentalis caurina, has left a pronounced legacy on the distribution, health and availability of mature and old-growth forest ecosystems throughout the range of this species. There is little doubt that, as we proceed into the 21st century, management of temperate forest resources and forest values will continue to be highly publicized and highly controversial. The Spotted Owl will continue to be in the spotlight, for decades to come, as biologists, ecologists and resource managers work together to ensure the continued persistence of this icon of North America's temperate forests. This book represents a landmark synthesis of demographic attributes for a well-studied and highly significant avian member of the Pacific Northwest's ecological community.
The work presented, with its team of 27 authors, is a collaborative synthesis of input from the sharpest, best informed, most acknowledged and most talented Spotted Owl biologists available. Although there have been four prior demographic studies on Spotted Owls, none were as comprehensive in their consideration of influential covariates, sample size or geographical scope. This fifth study has built upon all previous ones to improve statistical rigour, expand considerations to include additional covariates and strengthen conclusions by incorporating more data from a broader temporal and geographical scope.
The authors used 23 years of data (1985–2008), from 11 long-term studies that encapsulate the entire range of the subspecies within the USA (Washington, Oregon and California). The total sample size comprises 5224 marked Owls with 24 408 annual captures/recaptures. This observational study assesses associations between Spotted Owl vital rates, including fecundity, survival, recruitment and rate of population change, and key potentially influential environmental parameters (or covariates) – habitat supply, weather/climate (temperature and precipitation) and the competitive influence of the now-sympatric Northern Barred Owl Strix v. varia. Throughout the book, findings are presented and justified with quantified and statistically significant results and with well-framed ecological interpretations of conservation significance. This publication is accurately claimed, by the authors, to be the most comprehensive long-term demographic study of this species to date.
Figures are used appropriately to depict and summarize expressed observations and results. In particular, estimates of recruitment, apparent survival and rate of population change taken from all 11 long-term study areas provide a concise visual graphic of Spotted Owl population trends on federal lands. It is disconcerting that these troubling patterns ‘probably depict an optimistic view of the overall population status of the Northern Spotted Owl’ across other tenure types and jurisdictions. Indeed, the recent virtual disappearance of the Northern Spotted Owl from its entire Canadian range in southern British Columbia (BC) is a grim warning of the reality that can result from inconsiderate forest resource management. It has been estimated that approximately 500 pairs of Northern Spotted Owls used to occur within suitable forested habitat in southern BC (Chutter, M.J. et al. (2004) Recovery Strategy for the Northern Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) in British Columbia; 74-page report prepared for Ministry of Environment, Victoria, BC). Their historical range extended from the international border, from Vancouver east to Manning Park, north to Lillooet and was estimated to encompass some 960 000 hectares of old-growth forested habitat (Chutter et al. 2004). As of 2012, there were only two known pairs of Spotted Owls left in Canada.
In summary, this study paints an unarguable ‘picture’ of the Northern Spotted Owl's past demographic trends and future associated management challenges. The authors also discuss controversial issues, including habitat conservation and relatively new considerations involving Barred Owl population control. Informed conclusions are provided with regard to Spotted Owl population trends as well as thoughtful and justified recommendations for future management and research. This is indeed a landmark reference for biologists and resource managers. In addition, its thorough treatment of the methodologies and statistical analyses employed by the authors ensures that the study is also applicable beyond the scope of the focal species; Forsman et al. will be valued by any scientist concerned with long-term species conservation or tasked with conducting a species-specific demographic analysis.
Jared Hobbs
& . Jewels Beyond the Plough: A Celebration of Britain's Grasslands. 168 pages, over 140 watercolours. Peterborough: Langford Press, 2012. Hardback, £38.00, ISBN 978-1-904078-41-8. Website: http://www.langford-press.co.uk.
This is a celebration of Britain's semi-natural wildflower grasslands, comprising an authoritative text by Richard Jefferson and superb illustrations by John Davis. The book is comprehensive in its coverage of ecological variation, including calcareous and lowland acid grassland, old meadows and pastures, marshy grassland, coastal and floodplain grazing marsh, machair, and water meadows. Uplands and lowlands are treated in equal measure.
Prior to the 20th century, most of our agricultural grasslands were semi-natural and wildflower-rich, typically supporting 15 plant species per square metre, and up to 40 for some chalk and limestone soils. This habitat supported a wealth of insects and birdlife but in Britain, as elsewhere in Europe, agricultural improvement and residential development have inflicted massive losses. England and Wales alone suffered a 97% loss of wildflower grassland between 1934 and 1984. Much of what does remain is degraded, not least because of the steep decline in timely mowing and grazing, both of which are a prerequisite for maintaining semi-natural grassland as a successional stage. As Jefferson points out, the loss is not just of a quintessential habitat, but also of critical ecosystem services, not least pollination potential for arable crops, and flood alleviation.
Each grassland type is explored and described by selecting classic, exemplar sites, affectingly evoked by Davis's expansive (many double-page spreads), soft-focus watercolours, as if seen through a pollen haze. The artist's perspective, honed from many years of conjuring downland onto the easel, cleverly combines close-up and big picture, the foreground picking out the botanical detail of the characteristic flora, but not to the exclusion of capturing the broad sweep of the background, the whole constructed as if seen perhaps through the eyes of a Corn Crake Crex crex taking a periscope sighting. The bird species associated with each site are shown mainly in flight over the landscape. Thus we have, for example, depictions of Conistone Old Pastures in the Yorkshire Dales in which the fluting of the Curlew Numenius arquata overhead is almost audible, and Red-billed Chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax switchbacking over the rich calcareous grassland of Great Orme in Wales. In the second half of the book, birds are given a more bespoke role in fine plates of Wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe, Lapwing Vanellus vanellus, Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava, Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus and many others.
Richard Jefferson's knowledge is the perfectly weighted complement to John Davis's illustrations, giving keen insights into not just the avifauna but also the other semi-natural grassland fauna, with the butterflies a highlight. Author and artist thus combine to deliver a conservation message as powerful as it is elegant.
Euan Dunn
& . The Boreal Owl: Ecology, Behaviour and Conservation of a Forest-Dwelling Predator. xiv + 359 pages, 32 plates of colour photographs and figures, numerous black-and-white photographs, other figures and tables. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Hardback, £60.00, ISBN 978-0-521-11371-7. Website: http://www.cambridge.org.
The Boreal Owl Aegolius funereus (also known as Tengmalm's Owl) is a small, nocturnal predator that is found in the northern and montane forests of Eurasia and North America. It is a well-studied species, thanks to its readiness to breed in nestboxes, and also to the persistent hard work of the authors of this book.
Professor Korpimäki has studied Boreal Owls in his native Finland for over 40 years and his co-author and former student, Harri Hakkarainen, has joined him for the last 25 years. Up to 2010, the authors and their colleagues had spent over 10000 hours of fieldwork monitoring 1605 Boreal Owl nests in Finland, and had trapped and ringed over 2000 adults at their nests. Their impressive efforts have resulted in over 100 published papers on the Boreal Owl and related subjects, and all the information obtained has now been collated in a more easily accessible form in this book.
Small mammals are the Owl's main food source in northern Europe and these fluctuate cyclically. Korpimäki and Hakkarainen have comprehensively studied food supply coupled with diverse aspects of Boreal Owl ecology, and demonstrate how the birds adjust their behaviour and life history traits to the cyclically varying fat and lean periods they experience. For example, in peak vole years, Boreal Owls start to breed earlier, lay larger clutches, fledge more offspring and are frequently polygamous, whereas in poor vole years, very few breed at all, and those that do usually produce few young. The book comprehensively covers this theme, under separate chapters on, amongst other subjects, mating systems, reproduction, dispersal and survival.
Conservation is also covered in depth. Populations have undergone dramatic declines in recent years in northern Europe and the authors place much of the blame on intensive logging of old-growth spruce Picea forest. This habitat is shown to be important for the survival and lifetime reproductive success of Boreal Owls, probably because it is important for their prey, provides natural nesting habitat, and also offers protective cover from larger predatory owls.
While conservation of old-growth spruce forest is highlighted as the most important measure for halting the decline in Boreal Owls, the authors also propose putting up nestboxes to reduce the stiff competition the Owls face over natural nest- cavities (excavated by Black Woodpeckers Dryocopus martius) from other cavity-nesting birds and mammals. Practical advice is provided on the construction and erection of nestboxes, which will surely enable other ornithologists to enjoy observing this delightful species at close range. The book also contains other practical information that will be useful to ringers, such as ageing adults from moult patterns and nestlings using wing-length. I was especially interested in reading the description of how the authors’ research has progressed from its humble beginning in the late 1960s to the impressive long-term study it is today. Data have also been gathered from other ringers and ornithological groups in Finland that work on Boreal Owls and this co-operative approach should be an inspiration to other ornithologists.
The lucidly written text is accompanied by numerous tables and figures, and readers wishing to delve deeper can consult the comprehensive reference list. Although they are not of the highest quality, the photographs in the book are nevertheless informative and nicely complement the text. There is a central section of colour plates, many of which are unnecessarily repeated as black-and-white photographs beside the text. For example, those showing moult patterns and landscape composition maps are unclear and need only have been included in colour, but that is my only criticism of the book, and it is a minor one.
This is a well-written synthesis of the authors’ research on the Boreal Owl in Finland, as well as studies carried out on the species in the rest of Europe and North America, and is a welcome addition to the raptor literature. I can warmly recommend it to both academic professionals and other raptor enthusiasts who wish to learn more about the ecology, behaviour and conservation of this fascinating bird.
Tim Hipkiss
C.A. Lepczyk & P.S Warren. (eds) Urban Bird Ecology and Conservation. (Studies in Avian Biology, No. 45.) xiv + 326 pages, many black-and-white figures and tables. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press for the Cooper Ornithological Society, 2012. Hardback, US$70.00, £48.95, ISBN 978-0-520-27309-2. Website: http://www.ucpress.edu/go/sab.
Habitats around the world are fragmenting and deteriorating as a consequence of urban sprawl and densification. This has resulted in a host of ecological and biological impacts that, in turn, have fuelled research into urban ecology, a science made more prominent since the publication of Avian Ecology and Conservation in an Urbanizing World edited by J. M. Marzluff et al. (Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001). Five years later, a symposium was organized at the IV North American Ornithological Conference in Veracruz (Mexico) to examine what had been learnt by researchers, leading to this book.
There are four parts: (1) Mechanisms and Urban-Rural Gradients; (2) Citizen Science and Demography of Urban Birds; (3) Human-Avian Interactions and Planning and (4) Future Directions. The chapters cover a range of topics, some of which are field-based studies, including studies on Greater Roadrunners Geococcyx californianus in urban and suburban Arizona, Spotted Towhee Pipilo maculatus in Portland, Oregon, and conservation of Painted Bunting Passerina ciris in North and South Carolina; others are review chapters. The content is wide-ranging but, as in Marzluff et al. (2001), many of the studies focus on the USA. I would have preferred a more global approach, as there have been many important studies elsewhere in the world, e.g. the UK, Australia and Canada. Quantifying progress in this field is a valuable aim but owing to the markedly increased rate, especially in the last decade, at which urban studies of birds are being published and cited, a succinct demonstration of progress in one book is a significant task.
Urbanization involves both the direct ecological impact of replacing native vegetation structure by city infrastructure and the indirect process of fragmentation and degradation. To describe the urban landscape, which is complex and with ‘peaks’ and ‘troughs’ in the levels of development, the urban–rural gradient paradigm, first popularized by M. J. McDonnell and S. T. A. Pickett (Ecol. Appl. 71 (1990): 1232–1237), has often been adopted. It is reassuring that the topic of urban gradients is brought up early on in this book. This approach is a useful method for developing an understanding of interactions between urban development and the structure and function of ecological systems and to accommodate the complexity in the environment. Most cities are not a series of concentric rings of decreasing urbanization from the centre; nevertheless, published studies often use a transect approach employing measures of distance from the centre or a qualitative description of level of urbanization. A more representative gradient is one that describes urban pattern metrics such as percentage cover by land-cover or land-use type and is ecologically relevant to the taxa in question. It is important to highlight the gradient method to reinforce appropriate use. Although some of the studies presented (e.g. Chapters 5, 12 and 15) adopt the more appropriate gradient method, others do not, highlighting methodological inconsistencies in urban ecology research. Another important consideration for urban ecology in the book is that of scale (Chapter 2). Conducting multi-scale studies allows an understanding of the scale at which ecological processes occur, thus highlighting the importance of selecting extents appropriate to the species or taxa in question.
A substantial amount of attention is paid to citizen science in this volume. Although citizen science is not limited to urban habitats, it is an important and valuable tool both for collecting records and to engage the public with science and wildlife. Particularly thought-provoking and interesting is Marzluff's review and discussion of urban evolutionary ecology (Chapter 18). The idea of cultural coevolution between humans and birds is considered whereby cultural memes are driven by the response of humans to birds and vice versa. He sets out ideas that are well worth exploration and further research in urban bird ecology.
The information presented here is readily accessible, especially as most chapters are stand-alone studies. Edited volumes of this nature frequently take a long time to reach fruition and this one is no different; the most recently cited literature being from 2009. As a result, it already feels a little out of date. Nonetheless, its chapters still contain much of value. This is not an all-encompassing volume and some of the field-based studies would have been more suited to publication in a journal, but overall the book is a useful addition to an urban ecologist's library, and some chapters of wider interest should attract those whose main focus is not on urban ecology.
Emma Rosenfeld
. The Mandarin Duck. 192 pages, 16 plates of colour photographs, many black-and-white drawings, tables and maps. London: T & AD Poyser, 2013. Hardback, £50.00, ISBN 978-1-4081-4963-8. Website: http://www.bloomsbury.com.
Christopher Lever is well known as the author of a number of books on naturalized animals, including an earlier Poyser monograph, Naturalised Birds of the World (2005) and The Naturalized Animals of Britain and Ireland (New Holland, 2009); for reviews, see Ibis 148: 578 and 152: 425. They both included the Mandarin Duck Aix galericulata, with the latter containing a brief six-page account. The author clearly found this far too constraining and has now sought liberation in a new Poyser monograph devoted to this charismatic species.
As one expects from a master of thorough research, this is an exhaustive, but certainly not exhausting, account, which begins with the species’ native range in the Far East, where it is found in southwestern and central eastern China, Taiwan, both Koreas, Manchuria, northeastern Russia, including Sakhalin Island, and Japan from Hokkaido south to the Ryukyu Islands. The birds in the northern part of that extensive range are migratory, elsewhere they are mostly resident. The total population in the native range is more guesswork than the result of accurate counts, but something in the order of 50 000 adult birds seems reasonable.
The next chapter, ‘Conservation in the Far East’, is arguably the most important in the book as what happens there is going to determine the fate of the wild population in its native range. Deforestation and pollution of freshwaters in China have had a massive deleterious effect on this and many other species, but awareness of the need for conservation is slowly growing and regular monitoring is now carried out in many areas, giving some hope for the future. Protection by law from shooting, both there and in Japan and Russia, may also be helping. The conservation problems in Japan are less serious, though provision of nestboxes could assist in areas which are short of trees. In Russia, reserves and active conservation measures, mainly directed at cranes (Gruidae), are benefiting the Mandarin. The picture is far from rosy, but nor is it all doom and gloom, and as Lever says, birds could be reintroduced from the thriving British population if a future need arose.
Instead of following the description of the native range and status with details of the introduced populations, Lever breaks off for a short but delightful chapter entitled ‘The Mandarin Duck in Oriental legend, literature and art’. The Mandarin can strike one as a particularly fine construct of a Chinese or Japanese artist, but the inspiration was, obviously, in the opposite direction.
Lever's thoroughness is exemplified by his detailed account of the introduction of the species to England, followed by an examination of its spread throughout the country, including to Scotland and Northern Ireland, leading to its present widespread occurrence and a population of anywhere between 7000 and 14 000 individuals. The species’ secretive nature is blamed for these very wide estimates!
Mandarins have been found breeding in several western European countries, sometimes clearly spreading from England, but also stemming from other introductions or escapes. Away from Europe, there has been occasional breeding in South Africa, while, in the United States, there have been two widely separated successful colonizations, one in California, where there are between 100 and 200 breeding pairs, and the other in North Carolina, where no more than half a dozen pairs are thought to be present. Failed introductions have taken place in Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti. Lever also lists occurrences of non-breeding birds from about 20 other countries.
The last two chapters deal with the ‘Annual life cycle’ and ‘Food and foraging’. As well as these comprehensive accounts, there are several appendices covering topics such as classification, status, nestboxes, and trapping and ringing. There is also a brief account of the closely related Wood Duck Aix sponsa of North America. It is of interest, not least from a conservation point of view, especially in North America, that the Mandarin and the Wood Duck, though they might pair and lay eggs, are incapable of producing fertile eggs, thanks to a small, but crucial, genetic mismatch.
Christopher Lever has written a thorough and very readable monograph of this most attractive duck. It is illustrated by 16 pages of extremely fine colour photographs. I do, though, have to end by saying that I think the publishers have done the author a disservice by pricing this relatively slim book at £50.00.
Malcolm Ogilvie
. Owls of the World: A Photographic Guide. 512 pages, numerous colour photographs, 250 maps, 11 tables. London: Christopher Helm, 2012. Hardback, £35.00, ISBN 978-1-4081-3028-5. Website: http://www.bloomsbury.com.
Beautifully produced, this superb book is the first photographic guide that aims to illustrate all species of owls (Strigiformes). It follows the example set by Nigel Cleere's Nightjars, Potoos, Frogmouths, Oilbird and Owlet-nightjars of the World (reviewed in Ibis 154: 219) and offers a carefully selected set of high-quality photographs. The necessarily brief introductory chapters cover a wide range of topics, including hearing and vision, morphology and sounds, ecology and behaviour, evolution and classification, and owl folklore and conservation. Mikkola has done an excellent job in reviewing these subjects for a general audience and, as a result, the chapters are pleasantly narrative and avoid the dry handbook-style of writing of some other guides.
More than 850 photographs are included, which illustrate 235 of the 249 species recognized by the author. Many of these are illustrated with photographs for the first time. The quality of the images is generally excellent, the few exceptions all being species that are either rare or difficult to locate in the field. In a few cases, photographs of museum specimens are used. The high degree of completeness of this book testifies to the revolution in owl photography that has taken place during the past decade, when lightweight digital sound recording equipment and sound recordings of most species of owls became widely available. Using playback, it is now relatively easy to obtain good photographs of even the most elusive species of owls. Thus, long-mysterious species which virtually no one had seen until a few years ago are represented here with excellent photographs (e.g. Long-whiskered Owl Xenoglaux loweryi, Sula Scops Owl Otus sulaensis and Flores Scops Owl Otus alfredi).
The book includes many ‘rare’ photographs, including one taken in 1986 of the last ‘pure’ individual of the Norfolk Island Morepork Ninox novaeseelandiae undulata, a taxon that subsequently has been crossed with another subspecies to retain at least some of its genetic legacy. Other remarkable photographs include the third-ever record, and first photograph, of Taliabu Masked Owl Tyto nigrobrunnea, and those of a newly discovered and (as yet) undescribed species of screech owl Megascops sp. in the Santa Marta Mountains, Colombia.
Each species is covered in 1–4 pages. In addition to the photographs, the species accounts provide a map, a brief description of the morphology and vocalizations, food and hunting, habitat, status and distribution, geographical variation, and a discussion of similar species. Although most of this information is readily found in other sources, it nicely complements the photographs and helps readers to make the right comparisons. Some of the information in the species accounts is not fully up to date. Thus, Cinnabar Hawk Owl Ninox ios is not restricted to northern Sulawesi but has also been found in central Sulawesi (Mauro, I. (2001) Forktail 17: 118–119), and its call is actually well described (King, B. 2005, ibid. 21: 173–174), as is that of Otus alfredi (Hutchinson, R. et al. (2007) ibid. 23: 184–187). The recently proposed split of Torotoroka Scops Owl Otus madagascariensis, which Mikkola suggested needs corroboration from DNA analysis, has already been addressed using such methods and was not found to be distinct from Madagascar Scops Owl Otus rutilus (Fuchs, J. et al. (2007) Condor 109: 408–418).
Species limits in the book mostly follow König and Weick's Owls of the World (Christopher Helm, 2008) in which several forms of Tyto, Otus, Taenioglaux and Athene were raised to species rank. Many of these splits still lack adequate documentation (but see Pons, J.-M. et al. in this issue). An unnecessary account is that of ‘Grey-bellied Little Owl Athene poikilis’, described in 1989 as a Chinese subspecies of Athene noctua and here treated as a species. In fact, this taxon had already been shown to represent a misidentified Tengmalm's Owl Aegolius funereus but this was evidently overlooked (Sun, Y.-H. et al. (2003) Acta Zool. Sinica 49: 389–392). On the other hand, neither Mikkola nor König and Weick treat Northern Boobook Ninox japonica and Chocolate Boobook Ninox randi as species, although their species rank is supported by differences in vocalizations (King, B. (2002) Bull. Brit. Orn. Club 122: 250–257). Owl taxonomy is in flux: no fewer than five new species and subspecies have been described since this book was published in August 2012. Fortunately, photographs of four of these are already included in the book, albeit under their former names: Otus jolandae (as Otus magicus albiventris), Megascops koepckeae hockingi (as Megascops koepckeae), Ninox leventisi and Ninox rumseyi (both as Ninox philippensis spilonota).
This book is a brilliant presentation of the diversity of owls, a tribute to its author and the many photographers whose work is featured. I take great pleasure in recommending it to all.
George Sangster
, , & . [Birds of Ul'yanovsk: Diversity, Distribution, Limiting Factors and Protection Measures] (in Russian, with English summary). 280 pages, 155 colour photographs, many colour and black-and-white figures, tables, 2 appendices. Ul'yanovsk: Corporation of Progressive Technologies, 2011. Hardback, no price given, ISBN 978-5-903817-42-9. Contact emails: [email protected] (general), [email protected] (A.N. Moskvichev).
Ul'yanovsk (formerly Sinbirsk or Simbirsk) is situated on both banks of the Volga where the river has been dammed to form the vast Kuybyshev Reservoir.
This large-format book is a most impressive example of urban ornithology (see review of Lepczyk & Warren in this issue). It is printed clearly on glossy paper and attractively illustrated and presents the results of studies carried out by its authors over 35 years. Consideration is also given to earlier work (from 1768) and all relevant references are listed in the Bibliography (Appendix 2). Introductory chapters describe the physical geography of the city and the history of ornithological studies (P. S. Pallas, Modest Bogdanov and S. A. Buturlin are among famous names associated with the city in the past, while members of the Simbirsk branch of the Russian Bird Conservation Union, professionals and a greatly increased number of amateurs, are currently engaged in various kinds of research and other activities). The 32 main sites (parks, woodlands and a variety of wetlands) mentioned in the text are briefly described in ‘Material and methods’, and two other chapters present the general characteristics of Ul'yanovsk's modern avifauna (241 species) and avian population dynamics over the years, especially under the influence of urbanization.
The species accounts, among them long and detailed ones for Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, Feral Pigeon Columba livia and some crows (Corvidae), give all the available information on status, distribution and habitat, population numbers, limiting factors and conservation measures, movements, breeding, wintering and food. Status and population numbers at different times of the year are also summarized as a table in Appendix 1. Following these accounts come five further chapters: on birds in the urbanized environment; at artificial wetlands (wastewater treatment works, etc.); rare birds and their conservation; birds of specially protected sites of regional importance, and attracting birds into the city's green zones.
M. G. Wilson
. [Selected Works on Ethology and Evolutionary Biology] (in Russian). 695 pages, many black-and-white figures (including drawings by the author) and tables. Moscow: KMK Scientific Press, 2012. Hardback, price not given, ISBN 978-5-87317-868-1.
While still a student of Moscow State University in the 1950s, E. N. Panov chose to make ethology the main focus of his research, this at a time in the former USSR when the subject was viewed with deep suspicion and its development was blocked. It was not until the late 1960s/early 1970s that Panov's translations of the seminal works of K. Lorenz and N. Tinbergen were published there. From Moscow, he travelled first to South Ussuriland in the Russian Far East, where he worked in the Kedrovaya Pad’ Reserve; his Birds of South Ussuriland was published in 1973. The next move was again west, to Novosibirsk, where Panov worked at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in 1965–71. Continuing to the present day, a period of over 40 years at the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution followed Panov's return to Moscow in 1971.
This selection of 38 articles and review papers by the now-celebrated Russian zoologist and ethologist was published to mark the 75th anniversary of his birth. The papers are grouped under seven headings: History and methodology of the science (11); The species problem and hybridization (5); Behavioural ecology (5); Comparative ethology (7); Social behaviour and communication (3); Bioacoustics (4; on the organization of song in Common Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos, Sedge Warbler Acrocephalus schoenobaenus, Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella, and Tree Pipit Anthus trivialis); and Behaviour of Homo sapiens (2). Ibis readers may be aware of Panov's extensive studies on birds such as wheatears of the genus Oenanthe and shrikes (Laniidae), but the chapters in this book are a reminder that his studies have also embraced the large white-headed gulls and Great Black-headed Gull Larus ichthyaetus, swans Cygnus spp., cranes (Gruidae) and kestrels Falco tinnunculus and Falco naumanni, as well as lizards, including of the genus Laudakia, and feral Asses Equinus asinus. A comprehensive list of the author's main publications towards the end of the book comprises 286 titles published between 1963 and 2012.
In the Foreword, V. V. Ivanitskiy expresses his conviction that the appearance of this book will be regarded as a significant event and should certainly be of great benefit to young Russian zoologists aiming to specialize in animal behaviour.
M. G. Wilson
. The Dodo and the Solitaire: A Natural History. (Life of the Past series.) xxii + 407 pages, numerous monochrome text figures and 21 grouped colour plates. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2013. Hardback, US$75.00, £50.00, ISBN 978-0-253-00099-6. Website: http://www.iupress.indiana.edu.
After a long gap since Hachisuka's ambitious but flawed 1953 offering, The Dodo and Kindred Birds, the past 20 years have seen a spate of books on the Dodo Raphus cucullatus and its sister the Rodrigues Solitaire Pezophaps solitarius, but this book is different. Jolyon Parish has made a conscious attempt at a 21st-century version of Strickland and Melville's 1848 masterpiece The Dodo and Its Kindred, with a view to combining in one well-produced authoritative large-format book all the important data on these iconically extinct species. As did Strickland and Melville, Parish covers early accounts, contemporary illustrations and ‘anatomical evidences’ in separate illustrated chapters, adding further ones on derivative and post-extinction accounts and distortions, and bringing the story up to date with recent bone discoveries, morpho-cladistic analyses and DNA phylogeny. The mythical Réunion Dodo, actually an ibis Threskiornis solitaria, is given a few pages as the historical red herring it turned out to be.
The original historical accounts are reproduced verbatim in English translation, with considerable commentary, with which some of those familiar with the history and the islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues, including me, might sometimes disagree – but the material is very complete, and Parish is perfectly clear in distinguishing facts from speculation and often points out where an issue remains unresolved.
When a bird is long extinct, illustrations from its lifetime take on great importance and can, when fairly numerous (as with the Dodo), throw useful light on its life. However, in the chapter on images, speculation takes over from fact. This is partly due to poorly verifiable dating of the many paintings by Roelandt Savery and Gilles de Hondecoeter, but largely to the wide differences in interpretation in the literature as to whether birds were drawn alive or stuffed, and in the degree to which different artists copied previous works. Here, unfortunately, I feel that Parish has muddied the waters further; while deploring the speculations of others (‘this (idea) is unlikely’ occurs too often without back-up), he simply replaces it with, to my mind, unsupported views of his own. While intellectually interesting, this field is mostly zoologically trivial. Although there is scope for a structured analysis of Dodo art, it needs a cooperative effort between art historians, experts on style and zoologists to thrash out an agreed scheme, from which at last useful conclusions might be drawn. A helpful feature is that Parish has superimposed Dodo skeletons on the outlines of all the Dodo images he discusses, which rapidly shows how some cannot possibly have been done from living birds. Oddly, one of the most important Dodo paintings, the gaunt stuffed specimen in the remarkable folios of paintings from Emperor Rudolf II's early 17th-century Kunstkammer [museum] in Prague, is featured in the chapter on specimen remains, and is thus unsatisfactorily divorced from the main discussion of illustrations. This leads to contradictions: for instance, Parish argues that the dirty blackish colour of the Prague painting was due to staining during preparation, yet the painting from life by Indian miniaturist Mansur (c. 1625), widely accepted (including by Parish) as the best ever done of a Dodo, shows the same blackish plumage. In fact, contradictions creep in all over – the result of the book's apparently being compiled over almost 20 years, and some sections were not updated. An important omission is that Parish's account of the Dodo and the myth of its mutualism with the Tambalacoque tree Sideroxylon grandiflorum has missed the study by Baider and Florens (Chapter 11 in: W. Laurance & C. Peres (eds) Emerging threats to tropical forests. Chicago University Press, 2006) described in references he cites.
Discussion of birds brought to Europe and their remains returns us to more solid ground, although arguments continue as to how many were brought, when, and whether they reached Europe alive. Whether alive or dead, Parish adduces evidence for at least 15 different individuals exported from Mauritius, which is fairly remarkable for the time, given that most of the travellers were traders, not scientists or formal explorers. Dodos were bizarre enough to persuade many who saw them to take the trouble to keep them alive on long sea journeys, as was also done successfully at the same period, as Parish reminds us, for Cassowaries Casuarius casuarius. Despite the well-known fact that several Mascarene birds and bats became very fat at certain seasons, Parish totally discounts this as an explanation of fat vs. thin Dodos, in favour of artists seeing overstuffed specimens. I don't doubt that this happened, but there is nevertheless every reason to suppose that captive Dodos could be induced to become if not obese, then very heavy.
The meagre remains from imported specimens were dwarfed in the 19th century by the discovery of the prolific bone deposits at the Mare aux Songes in Mauritius, from which whole skeletons could be reconstructed and the bird's anatomy recreated. The discovery triggered an unseemly rivalry between the influential Richard Owen of the British Museum and the younger Alfred Newton, aspiring to become professor in Cambridge but afraid that Owen could spoil his chances; Owen won through trickery. However, Newton's continuing interest, supported by his brother Edward, a colonial official in Mauritius, eventually led to an explosion of subfossil discoveries that confirmed most of the extinct fauna reported by early visitors to the island, and also to extensive excavations in Rodrigues caverns that yielded enormous piles of Solitaire bones. The recent round of excavations that has turned up Dodo and Solitaire bones in new sites is highlighted, too. Again oddly, the section on taphonomy is placed at the end of the natural history chapter (6) instead of with the details of subfossil finds.
Parish then turns to the biology of the Dodo and the Solitaire, and covers the reasons for their extinction and, for the Dodo, the unresolved question of when that happened. While there are a few direct observations of the Solitaire living in its natural habitat, we have none for the Dodo, so all is speculative. Inferences have to come from anatomy (described in some detail) and from related species (Goura, Caloenas). Several studies have found that the former ‘Raphidae’ is deeply nested amongst pigeons (Columbidae), and most probably derived from the same stem as the supertramp Nicobar Pigeon Caloenas nicobarica. A final short chapter looks at extinctions and conservation efforts.
This book is very concentrated and a reviewer can only skim. I make no apologies for having largely ignored the Solitaire, because it is altogether better documented than the Dodo (except that there is only one contemporary image), and there is thus much less to speculate and argue about. Parish's book is not just a reworking of old material, but contains a lot of historical snippets, linkages, and personal insights that are new; Parish may in places be controversial or wrong, but he hasn't missed much. Does he deserve to usurp Strickland and Melville's crown in the pantheon of dodologists? No. There is too much weakly supported argument and somewhat disorganized structure for that, but for breadth and completeness it remains streets ahead of all other recent Dodo books and, lacking the factual errors and imaginary species of Hachisuka's claim to pre-eminence, I think it can be safely accorded silver to Strickland and Melville's gold.
Anthony Cheke
. Partridges: Countryside Barometer. (The New Naturalist Library.) 465 pages, numerous figures, including colour photographs, maps and graphs, many tables. London: Collins, 2012. Hardback, £50.00, ISBN 978-0-00-741870-1; paperback, £30.00, ISBN 978-0-00-741871-8. Websites: http://www.collins.co.uk, http://www.newnaturalists.com.
The Grey Partridge Perdix perdix is, as the subtitle of this book suggests, an indicator of the health of our countryside. Primarily found in grassland and farmland habitats throughout much of the West Palaearctic region and successfully introduced to North America, the world population of Grey Partridges in the early 1950s was believed to be around 110 million (G.R. Potts (1986) The Partridge: Pesticides, Predation and Conservation; reviewed in Ibis 129: 424–425). Today it is estimated to be between 5 and 10 million (BirdLife International 2012); a massive decline in numbers throughout the species’ range. This rapid disappearance reflects the enormous changes that have occurred to steppe grasslands and cereal ecosystems and their biodiversity over the last 60 years. Partridges is a lively and comprehensive account of those changes as seen through the eyes of a scientist with a passion for farming and game conservation.
The book is a fine contribution to the New Naturalist series, providing a fascinating and exhaustive account of many facets of partridge biology by comprehensively reviewing and analysing studies of Grey, Red-legged Alectoris rufa and Chukar A. chukar Partridges across their natural and introduced ranges. It documents the evolution and historical distributions of these species, as well as their life histories, population dynamics and ecology. Harnessing this information, Potts explores the impacts of food production practices and other management systems of arable farmland on biodiversity. He concludes that current land use policy and practice are very damaging to many species reliant on grassland steppe and arable habitats.
Documented here are the detailed ecological investigations, modelling studies and experimental field trials on partridges, many conducted or initiated by the author himself, that have taken place in the UK and elsewhere over the last 50 years. This research has shown how reductions in insect abundance, brought about by the use of herbicides and insecticides, reduced chick survival and led to a widespread decline in Grey Partridges, and adversely affected many other species of farmland wildlife. The depletion of this key quarry species for the shooting community reduced their incentives for maintaining field boundaries and other nesting habitat, resulting in further losses of biodiversity, including partridges and other game species.
Potts argues that game management, including the control of predators, is vital to conserving farmland biodiversity. He provides vigorous analysis to support his thesis that in landscapes that are now man-managed with few or no top predators remaining, many species lower down the food chain will only survive if other predator numbers are regulated by human intervention. The story gets more complicated when the practice of releasing large numbers of hand-reared game birds, especially Common Pheasant Phasianus colchicus and Red-legged Partridge, are added to the equation. While large-scale releasing of alien species may prolong hunting seasons and the livelihoods of those employed in the industry, it also seems likely to be causing further environmental damage and reduces the incentives for game management practices to address the broader issues of maintaining good habitats for game and other wildlife.
Having comprehensively reviewed and summarized the issues relating to partridge biology and conservation, this book draws to its crescendo in Chapter 10. Here the author describes his dream opportunity: to put into practice on the Norfolk Estate in Sussex all the measures he believes will restore biodiversity to this arable ecosystem. With the Duke of Norfolk, Potts set up and monitored the effects of a whole series of management measures – including beetle banks, conservation headlands, a patchwork of crop planting, supplementary feeding, hedgerow management and predator control – to create the ideal conditions for partridges and other wildlife. The results are impressive: partridges and other farmland species, including rare arable flowers, invertebrates, birds and mammals, have been successfully restored to the countryside.
Never afraid to tackle controversial issues, be it the impact of pesticides on non-target species, the control of predators, the beneficial contributions of hunting to conservation or the daftness of some government subsidies, Potts provides the reader with a rich and fascinating mix of scientific analysis, detailed case studies and personal experience throughout this book, enhanced by the use of excellent photographs and clear graphics. Its energy, depth and vitality reflect the author's approach to life, and make for a rewarding read. His final chapter argues convincingly for public–private partnerships to deliver sustainable conservation solutions. I hope his arguments and ideas – along with his call for cooperation between agribusiness, protectionists and hunters – are listened to and acted upon for the sake of farmland biodiversity and the future of our countryside.
M. R. W. Rands
. A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Malta. 200 pages with many colour photographs, 1 map. Peterborough: Langford Press, 2011. Paperback, £15.00, ISBN 978-1-904078-28-9. Website: http://www.langford-press.co.uk.
The latest offering from the Langford Press in a new series entitled ‘Birds and People’, this slim and well-illustrated book starts by summarizing general information about Malta – its geographical and social/political status, climate, habitats, followed by an overview of its avifauna. A very useful section on the best birding locations (including brief safety advice!) precedes one on the state of conservation in Malta and the environmental problems that need to be addressed. There is a detailed overview of some of the many conservation challenges such as the potential impacts of proposed offshore wind farms on Yelkouan Shearwater Puffinus yelkouan, perhaps Malta's most important breeding species, as the islands hold approximately 10% of the world's population.
Not surprisingly, an entire chapter is devoted to the impacts of widespread illegal hunting and intensive trapping, by far the greatest threat to Malta's avifauna. This is a subject by now well known to most readers and which has been covered in other recent books: see reviews in Ibis 151: 786–787; 153: 647–648. However, Raine's own personal accounts (he spent 4 years as Conservation Manager for BirdLife Malta), supported by numerous images depicting dead and injured birds, are a shocking yet valuable contribution that allows the reader to appreciate the extent and complexity of this issue and the huge difficulties and many frustrations associated with trying to manage it. While illegal hunting and trapping are still widespread in Malta, Raine tries to reassure the reader by maintaining that ‘the tide is changing’. Tighter hunting regulations, shorter open spring seasons, increasing public support and continued pressure from conservation bodies along with increased fines for offenders have already resulted in increased breeding records.
Accounts of 230 of Malta's most common and most important species make up the bulk of the book. Each account is in a standardized, one-page format that includes the species’ name in six languages, concise notes on identification, together with a brief summary of the key features that distinguish similar species, a list of associated habitats as well as conservation status both in Malta (the frequent repetition of ‘often targeted by illegal hunters’ or similar phrases has a jarring effect) and internationally. The amount of text for each species varies, but for most, considerable space is lost because of the list of names. There are typically one or two photographs of each species (the majority taken in Malta by Maltese photographers), a single medium-size image and, where relevant, a rather small inset of lesser quality (making it difficult to see finer detail) depicting age, sexual and seasonal differences. The species are presented in groups with common and scientific name and the outside top corner colour-coordinated so that the reader can flip through quickly and easily. Following on from this section is a complete checklist of Malta's nearly 400 bird species.
Overall, this is a superb guide: compact, inexpensive and easy to use and ideal for inexperienced birdwatchers or those not wanting to get weighed down by in-depth plumage description. Tips on where best to find birds should prove useful irrespective of experience. It is particularly valuable in illustrating the campaign to conserve the Maltese avifauna, a topic every birdwatcher considering visiting Malta should be aware of but certainly not deterred by. A portion of the proceeds from sales of this book will be given in support of BirdLife Malta's ongoing work.
Stephen Bentall
. Owls. 224 pages and numerous colour photographs. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2012. Hardback, £ 25.00, ISBN 978-1-4081-5553-0. Website: http://www.bloomsbury.com.
This book gives us an enormous amount of information on a spectacular group of birds. There are two sections. The first part (nine chapters, 95 pages) begins with ‘What makes an owl’, subsequent chapters then treating senses, hunting behaviour and techniques, habitat, breeding biology, and threats and conservation. In ‘Owls and people’, it is noted that the Ancient Greeks, Aztecs and Mayans had their owl-like gods, as did the Ainu people in Japan, and well-known examples of owls in fiction are also given. Superb photographs are a most attractive feature throughout. The author is well informed about the literature on owls and in this first part she explains in a clear way such complex subjects as taxonomy, intra-guild predation, reversed sexual dimorphism and polygamy.
In the second part (100 pages), after a glossary and a chapter that provides brief information on the families of owls in other parts of the world, 41 species living in Northern Eurasia and North America are described in more detail. One or more pictures illustrate their characteristic plumage, their behaviour or their chicks. The length of the accounts varies: lesser-known species are treated in only one page, the better-studied species in three or four pages. Treatment for each species is standardized under 11 headings: Size, Range, Evolution and relationships, Description, Geographical variation, Movements and migration, Voice, Habitat, Behaviour, Hunting and diet, Breeding, Status and conservation. The information provided is well chosen and up to date. This is not easy in the case of geographical variation and taxonomy because DNA techniques still question the status of a number of species. The list of references is very small and includes fewer than 30 books, publications or websites, which might be seen as a weakness. However, the book is surely aimed at a wider audience keen to increase their knowledge about an entrancing group of birds and Marianne Taylor has succeeded very well in providing a book which owl-lovers will wish to acquire and use for that purpose.
Fred Koning
Also received
V.P Belik. (ed.) [Archives of the Menzbier Ornithological Society, Volume 1. Collected Papers of the XIII International Ornithological Conference of Northern Eurasia, Orenburg, 30 April–6 May 2010] (in Russian, with English Contents, abstracts and captions). 360 pages, many black-and-white figures (including photographs) and tables. Makhachkala, Russia: Aleph (I P Ovchinnikov), 2011. Hardback, no price given, ISBN 978-5-4242-0033-5.
The Menzbier Ornithological Society was founded in February 1983 and a review of its history by the late E. N. Kurochkin is the opening contribution to this first volume of the MOS Archives. Twenty-six selected papers from the Conference are presented in full and others were published in the Russian Zoologicheskiy Zhurnal 90 (7) for July 2011. In addition to reviews of the avifauna of particular locations, there are contributions on systematics, ecology and evolution, avian palaeontology and conservation of rare species. It is planned to publish regular (ideally, annual) volumes of the Archives and these will contain the results of studies carried out by MOS members.
M.G.W.
G.S Dzhamirzoev. (ed.) [Bird Conservation in Russia: Problems and Future Prospects. Proceedings of the All-Russian Conference on Scientific Research and Practical Applications Dedicated to the 20th Anniversary of the Russian Bird Conservation Union, Moscow, 7–8 February 2013] (in Russian, with Foreword and Contents in English). 368 pages, black-and-white figures and tables. Moscow – Makhachkala: Russian Bird Conservation Union, 2013. Hardback, no price given, ISBN 978-5-94018-023-4. Website: http://www.rbcu.ru.
In the Foreword to these Proceedings, V. A. Zubakin, President of the Russian Bird Conservation Union, explains what the RBCU represents, how it has developed and what it has achieved since its foundation in 1993.
Papers given at the Conference reflect the main target activities of the RBCU. There are 29 contributions in the section ‘Rare bird species and their protection’: for example, White-headed Duck Oxyura leucocephala in the south of Western Siberia; Steppe Eagle Aquila nipalensis in Russia and Kazakhstan (according to I. V. Karyakin et al., several Russian subpopulations have collapsed and there has also been a decline, though less marked, in Kazakhstan, home to most of the world's Steppe Eagles); and population dynamics of pelicans Pelecanus spp. in the Volga Delta. Much information is also provided on the Russian Key Ornithological Sites (Territories: KOTRs) and Important Bird Areas programmes. Among ‘Bird conservation issues’, about which there is also a plenary report by A. V. Saltykov, is the persistent and acute problem of bird mortality on power lines and what is being done to mitigate it. It is clear from papers in the section ‘Ecological awareness and education’ that the RBCU is also impressively active in this field, involving children of all ages and the Russian public more widely.
M.G.W.
N.V Lebedeva. (ed.) [Theoretical Aspects of Coloniality in Birds] (in Russian, with Contents in English). 270 pages, black-and-white figures and tables. Rostov-on-Don: SSC RAS [Southern Science Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences] Publishers, 2012. Paperback, no price given, ISBN 978-5-4358-0045-6.
Eleven of the 27 papers in this book cover general aspects of the study of coloniality (e.g. density of colonies as an evolutionary phenomenon, colonial birds and transmission of parasites in coastal ecosystems), while the others describe various aspects applied to different species or groups (as might be expected, there is much about seabirds and other waterbirds, but also, for example, Red-footed Falcon Falco vespertinus and passerines, including wagtails (Motacillidae) and warblers of the genera Acrocephalus and Hippolais/Iduna). The papers were delivered at the Third Meeting on Coloniality in Birds, which was dedicated to the centenary of the birth of V. M. Modestov and took place in Rostov-on-Don on 7–9 November 2012. Papers from the First Meeting (Pushchino, Moscow Region, 1984) and the Second (Melitopol’, Ukraine, 1988) were briefly noted in Ibis 128: 597 and 135: 485, respectively.
M.G.W.
. Kitty the Toon: The World's First Inland Colony. (Myweebooks.) 32 pages, colour illustrations by Barry Robson. Peterborough: Langford Press, 2012. Hardback, £7.00, ISBN 978-1-904078-53-1. Website: http://www.langford-press.co.uk.
This book launches a new Langford Press series with a strong conservation message for children. Four forthcoming titles are announced and more will follow. The scene is set on the River Tyne in northeast England where Kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla nest on buildings and where the local football team is Newcastle United (‘the Toon’). The black-and-white shirts worn by the footballers and many fans allow Kitty in her similar juvenile plumage to fit in and, by merging with the home crowd at a match, she is even able to escape a marauding bird of prey. ‘Grown-ups’ wanting a more scientific approach may turn to the J. C. Coulson monograph on the species reviewed in Ibis 155: 435–436.
M.G.W.
, & . et al. Ptitsy Podmoskov'ya: polevoy opredelitel’ [Birds of Moscow and the Moscow Region: A Field Guide]. 3rd revised edn. (in Russian). 232 pages, colour plates and 4 maps. Moscow: Russian Bird Conservation Union, 2011. Paperback, no price given, ISBN 978-5-94018-019-7. Website: http://www.rbcu.ru.
“Podmoskov'ye” in the Russian title refers to Moscow and its environs as well as more distant parts of the Moscow Region [‘Moskovskaya oblast’]. This guide to over 300 species was first published in 2008 (reviewed in Ibis 151: 609), sold very well and was reprinted in 2009, with a similar result. Like its predecessor, this 3rd edition is printed on glossy paper; all of the fine artwork is by A. A. Mosalov, the first of the book's 15 authors. Revisions include some new paintings, improved composition of the plates and a reworking of texts. There are excellent ‘Where to watch birds’ texts for 25 sites and these contain numerous warnings about not disturbing birds and the strict observance of rules governing visits to especially sensitive areas. Useful information is also provided about the RBCU and the programme ‘Birds of Moscow and the Moscow Region’ many of whose publications have been reviewed in these pages.
M.G.W.
V.K. Ryabitsev & V.V Tarasov. (eds) [Materials on Bird Distributions in the Urals, Priural'ye and Western Siberia. Regional Avifaunistic Journal. Issue 17] (in Russian, with 3 abstracts and Contents in English). 178 pages, black-and-white photographs, 1 map, tables. Ekaterinburg: Urals University Press, 2012. ISSN 2218–7685. Contact emails: [email protected], [email protected] (V.V. Tarasov).
In my review of Issue 16 (Ibis 154: 654), I drew attention to the appropriate citation following the publication's change of status to a journal. The Foreword in Issue 17 contains sound advice about correct identification of birds and the subsequent submission of notes and articles, the use of modern equipment in the field and the role of record committees.
Among study sites in Issue 17's longer articles are the steppes of the Transurals, the environs of Akademgorodok (Novosibirsk), the extreme south of the Orenburg Region (border with Kazakhstan), and Ekaterinburg (including a survey of its corvids). In a review of rare birds of the Omsk Region (the south of Western Siberia) by A. A. Nefyodov (pp. 121–134), there are intriguing reports (not entirely reliable) of the Critically Endangered Slender-billed Curlew Numenius tenuirostris: a single bird in May 1984 and four in May 2005. More recent records, supported by brief notes on the diagnostic features and an emphasis on the birds’ approachability compared with other Numenius spp., were submitted by A. E. Shvein and relate to four birds in May and seven in August 2010.
Of several short notes, one refers to the occurrence and breeding of Penduline Tit Remiz pendulinus caspius in Bashkortostan in 2012; another to the observation of three ‘Masked Wagtails’ Motacilla (alba) personata on the Upper Pechora, apparently the first of this species [race] for European Russia.
M.G.W.
