The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland
About.com Rating
The Bottom Line
Birding is an art form in the United Kingdom, and Richard Crossley and Dominic Couzens team up to turn field guides into an art with The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland. Covering more than 300 regularly occurring species in the region, this guide uses composite photos to provide crisp, entertaining views accompanied by concise but informative text covering everything a birder needs to better appreciate and enjoy the birds.
Ideal just to read or an equally useful tool in the field, this book should have a place of distinction on every birder's bookshelf.
Pros
- Composite plates offer multiple views of each species within typical habitats and with characteristic postures and plumages.
- Text is conversationally written and provides useful information with a friendly, accessible tone that novice and expert birders alike can enjoy.
- While the size is generally larger than many field guides, it is still portable enough for easy field use.
Cons
- While all regularly occurring species are covered, the most commonly recurring vagrant species are conspicuously absent.
- Only British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) abbreviations are used and may be unfamiliar to birders from North America, but they are very intuitive and easy to learn.
- Lacks additional resources such as a birding hotspot list or information on local and regional birding groups that could be useful for travel planning or connecting with other birders.
Description
- Title: The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland
- Authors: Richard Crossley and Dominic Couzens
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication Date: November 2013
- Format: Softcover
- Bird Artwork: Photographs
- Dimensions: 9.5" (24.0 cm) tall, 6.25" (16.0 cm) wide, .8" (2.25 cm) thick
- Page Count: 304
- ISBN: 978-0-691-15194-6
- Price: $27.95 (USD)
Review - The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland
The third book in the award-winning Crossley ID Guide series, The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland continues the tradition of innovative composite photographic plates, entertaining yet informative text and personal insights that provide a real-life approach to bird identification. Richard Crossley's interest in birds began at age 7 and he was a full-fledged birder by age 10, and it was only a matter of time before this native Yorkshireman published one of his distinctive guides for the birds of his childhood.
Covering more than 300 species, this book is more than a field guide, it is an intuitive teaching tool that combines habitat, posture, behavior, light, distance and other parts of a bird's jizz to help readers develop their birding skills at an instinctive level rather than relying on formulaic field marks and other single-point identification indicators. Intended for both beginning and intermediate birders, this guide offers insights to each species and birding in general, beginning with the introduction (pages 18-31) that not only discusses the book's organization but provides tips for its use as an instructional guide for readers to improve their skills.
The introduction also discusses a range of birding tips, expanding on familiar birding techniques to give readers more finesse in the field. The conversational tone is friendly and easy to read, yet packed with practical information. The parts of a bird diagrams (pages 24-27) will be particularly useful to novices, and show a range of birds labeled with key identification features for the type of bird – songbirds, raptors, ducks, gulls and waders.
The species profiles are divided into seven general groups, and each type of bird group has a 1-2 page introduction with basic tips and general information. Each individual profile includes only brief text but every word is valuable and typical details are:
- Common and scientific name
- BTO abbreviation codes
- Seasonal UK population numbers
- Distinctive behavior
- Preferred habitat
- Voice and songs
- Best identification clues
- Thumbnail range map
The image plates are similarly packed with information – multiple birds are shown in each scene, and the composition of different postures, ages, plumages, distances, behaviors and light levels provides an unparalleled overview of how each bird truly appears in the field. The birds are in focus throughout the plate, and some are subtly labeled with age or gender for quick reference. Plates occasionally include other bird species for comparison, and the overall scenes are typical British and Irish habitats for enjoyable birding.
For quick reference, a Quick Key to Species (p. 6-17) is useful as a visual table of contents, and the inside of the back cover features a range map key, plate reading key and plate glossary. The book's index includes both common and scientific names.
The guide's construction is durable enough for field use, and while it can be somewhat large and bulky, it is not so oversized that it is impossible to use in the field. The lack of inclusion of regularly occurring vagrants can make the guide less practical for twitchers, but The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland is a fine volume for casual and dedicated birders alike and is sure to help any reader improve, refresh and simply enjoy their birding skills.
Don't forget the other books in the Crossley ID series!
Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.