British Warblers : 71

To anyone with an awakening interest in ornithology, the warblers may seem a very daunting group. Eric Simms, the author of Woodland Birds and British Thrushes in the New Naturalist series, has drawn on his considerable personal experience to produce a lucid, highly readable, and authoritative study of these fascinating birds.

With an increasing knowledge of this big, successful family, the naturalist will not only appreciate the wide variety that exists among the warblers, but also come closer to getting to terms with their identification. The book opens with three broad introductory chapters covering the warblers of the Old and New World and those of Britain, followed by chapters examining, comparing and contrasting members of each genus, and a series of single chapters for each breeding species which review their characteristics in detail.

The author makes use of the latest field discoveries, his own accumulated research and that of many other distinguished ornithologists (with a bibliography of over 1000 references) to present a detailed picture of the warblers in Britain today. This comprehensive and accessible review is fully illustrated with maps, sonagrams, diagrams and photographs, and features Ian Wallace's six superb colour plates of warblers' plumages and his expert line drawings showing aspects of morphology and behaviour, alongside Eric Hosking's outstanding photographs of different warbler species.