When I first heard that Reed and Bush Warblers was destined to be made available to hit our bookshelves I was rightfully enraptured. I have been fortunate enough to have seen a good many of the Western and Eastern Palearctic species in the field and they have long been amongst my very favourite taxa. That it was to be published as another of the superb Helm Identification Guides only went to reinforce my pre-conceived notion that it would be yet another triumph of modern day birding literature. The authors are evidently at the very top of their game and it would be difficult to think of a more qualified team to have written the tomb, both Peter Kennerley and David Pearson know their subject intimately and comprehensively whilst Brian Small is certainly no slouch in that department either!
The book is typically (for the Helm guides) substantial in size and weight and at 712 pages, a guide to actually take into the field it certainly is not. It covers some 112 species of primarily the genera Acrocephalus, Locustella, Cettia and Bradypterus, together with a few smaller related genera, most of which have a relatively nondescript appearance and retiring behaviour which affords the sternest of identification challenges. There are 42 colour plates by Brian Small at the front of the book and many pencil drawings also by him are found within the species accounts thereafter. The guide is also well furnished with more than 350 photographs adorning its pages too. It follows the tried and tested layout for the Helm guides and as usual it works very well. The first section in the book covers the customary taxonomy, topography and terminology preamble and has interesting sections on migration, moult strategies and ageing although the section on 'phylogenetic relationships as revealed by molecular analyses' just made my brain hurt and subsequently I had to take a lie down!
The plates within the book are all painted by ex-British Birds Rarities Committee member and full-time artist Brian Small and are frankly stunning. The appeal of artwork is naturally a personal taste but for me, these plates are the finest and most beautifully observed within any one book that I have ever come across. That I hadn't even heard of a good proportion of the species within them let alone seen any illustrated before was irrelevant. They are without exception beautifully painted with extraordinary attention to detail and even the entirely nondescript Bamboo Warbler leapt off the page with life like detail. What Brian Small has done is essence, is to not only produce what are in my view the most accurate and attractive collection of plates in any guide but also, he has succeeded in making what on the face of it seems to a be particularly bland family of birds, look entirely beautiful.
Above: this really only gives you a taste of the beauty the plates by Brian Small are to behold as they have to be seen with book in hand to fully appreciate them and any further poor images by me would only do them a severe injustice. That said, the individuality of each bird, their accuracy and their truly life-like quality is plain to see. Having personally seen all the species on this page in real life, the plate brought back some blissfully vivid memories and admirably displays how a relatively bland selection of birds is made to look beautiful.
If push came to shove and I had to pick a favourite though, then the plate of Moustached, Aquatic and Sedge Warblers would have to be it, a plate which epitomises the artist's prodigious talent. Each bird has it's own pose and each is brought to life with remarkable attention to detail, personified by the intricate visible wear on the wing of the adult, heavily worn, August Aquatic Warbler. The Upcher's, Eastern Olivaceous, Western Olivaceous, Sykes and Booted Warbler plates also admirably illustrate the technical accuracy and cutting edge identification component of the artists work. Plates score for Reed and Bush Warblers is therefore an effortless ten out of ten from the Manchester Birding judge!
Okay, so plates alone don't make a book but can the text within this mighty digest match their brilliance? The answer is a resounding yes. Everything you'd expect can be found within the exhaustive species accounts including identification, similar species comparisons, voice, moult, habitat, behaviour, breeding habits, distribution, movements, detailed descriptions, in-hand characters, geographical variation, taxonomy and systematics. I turned to species I knew well (which is just as well as a large proportion of the species within the book I hadn't even heard of!) and found them to be meticulously dealt with indeed. There really is little more to be said other than it should provide all the information you could ever need. The treatment of the five races of Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler for instance seems particularly meticulous and thorough being quite clearly the most comprehensive collection of data currently available for these attractive little warblers. I turned eagerly to Eurasian Reed Warbler, a species I am very familiar with in both it's scirpaceous and fuscus guises, having studied both annually for several years now but whilst the treatment was evidently first-rate I couldn't help feeling that the appearance overlap between the two races in autumnal first winter plumage at least had been underplayed somewhat? Obviously that's particularly insignificant in the scheme of things and the entire text section was every bit as good as I had expected it to be, as detailed and well written as one would expect from authors who know their subject so well.
Above and below: sections of the main meat of the book, the species accounts. They are enlivened throughout by sublime pencil drawings by Brian Small, illustrating small details or comparisons with other species and work supremely well. Tables are used throughout to provide in-hand measurements and wing formula, the latter of which is also illustrated with line drawings to support this often critical data.
One apparently puzzling decision within the book was the use of such small sized sonograms for the species vocalisations. At a mere two and a half inches in width and half an inch in height (see the very top left of the book in the image below) they are far too small and surely more space could have been dedicated to this essential feature when dealing with the distinctive vocalisations that can assist with their identification? In order to perhaps alleviate this slightly, there are rumours of a complementary website with links to new taxonomic thinking plus importantly, recordings for each species. Furthermore, a CD of vocalisations was hoped to complement the book but sadly time and money got in the way!
The species maps are visually clear and attractive with, where applicable, each individual race of a species separated into it's breeding and wintering zones. The maps vary in size depending on the extent of distribution and rightly, the maps for rather localised species like the Pacific Island Acrocephalus warblers are small whereas those for widespread species like Clamorous Reed Warbler occupy a full page.
Above: the map for the distribution of Eastern Olivaceous Warbler with the various races spit into clear zones. A sonogram can be seen (probably!) in the top left hand corner of the left page and demonstrates just how small they are, being made to fit in with the narrow text columns.
The 350 plus photographs within the book are excellent and are an essential inclusion to the books success. With today's massive array of camera clad birders, internet gallery laden websites and image packed birding blogs there are seemingly no shortages of images out there. It could therefore be said that more visually attractive images might have been available for some species but rather, the images within the book appear to have been (rightly) chosen to illustrate certain features, whether that be plumage or jizz related. All things considered then, the images utilised within Reed and Bush Warblers are not only visually attractive anyway but are equally illustratively impressive. Job well done!
Above: The selection of images for Eurasian Reed Warbler. Like all the others in the book, they serve to complement the text and are themselves accompanied with concise summarizations of the features they intended to illustrate.
At the very back of the book there are a selection of tables which are unquestionably not to be ignored. They cover principal measurements from museum specimens plus origins, migration status and moult strategies and are presented in a clear and particularly useful format. Perhaps more useful for the field birding masses, they also include tables for comparative field characters of similar species and are predictably an inspired inclusion. They allow quick and easy reference to the useful identification and separation for all the difficult groups, many of which afford a truly arduous but enjoyable challenge for birders.
Above: the tables for comparative field characters of similar species are likely to become the most used and abused pages of any within the book such is their usefulness. I for one applaud their inclusion.
In summary then, Reed and Bush Warblers continues the Helm identification series' high standards with comparative ease. Sure the subjects might not appear outwardly the most instantly attractive of birds to most birders but this book does it's absolute upmost to prove that wrong. If you really thought that all reed and bush warblers were bland and needed a 'quick-fix' to prove otherwise, then one only has to turn to page 101 to clap eyes on the adult typical morph Tahiti Warbler, which is frankly downright spectacular! Reed and Bush Warblers is a genuine tour de force, the definitive treatment currently available and continues the standard with which similar identification books should be measured. Frankly I didn't think I could justify the seemingly hefty price tag of £65* that this book costs despite my eagerness for it to be amongst the other books which bend my bookshelves, which is why I borrowed my review copy! After living with the book for a few weeks now though, bathing in it's magnificent artwork and immersing myself in its deeply authorative text, that £65 genuinely doesn't feel that bad afterall. That said, I'll still be waiting until this year's birthday comes around for my copy but there is a space ready and waiting for it on that shelf.
* Reed and Bush Warblers can be found cheaper than the recommended retail price and shopping around on the Internet is advisable.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to Paul Heaton who kindly loaned me his copy of Reed and Bush Warblers to review and my apologies to him for the coffee stains, biscuit crumbs, doodles...
Ian McKerchar, January 2011
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