Collins Bird Guide

Collins Bird Guide
Author(s)	Lars Svensson and Peter J. Grant
Illustrator	Killian Mullarney and Dan Zetterström
Country	U.K.
Language	English
Publisher	HarperCollins
Publication date	1999
Media type	Print (Hardback and Paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-00-219728-6 (hardback) ISBN 0-00-711332-3 (paperback)
OCLC Number	40754502

The Collins Bird Guide is a field guide to the birds of the Western Palearctic.

Its authors are Lars Svensson, Killian Mullarney, Dan Zetterström and Peter J. Grant, and it is illustrated by Killian Mullarney and Dan Zetterström (with two plates of North American passerines contributed by Larry McQueen).^[1] It has been described as "undoubtedly the finest field guide that has ever been produced", and "the last great bird book of the 20th century".^[2]

It was originally published in Swedish in 1999,^[3] and in English in hardback in the same year, and later in paperback.^[4] A large-format English edition has also been produced, as has a German edition. A second edition, revised and enlarged, was published in January 2010.^[5]

The guide covers Europe, North Atlantic islands, much of North Africa and the Middle East.

Eleven pages of introductory material are followed by the book's main content: 366 pages of text and colour paintings. The text for each species gives brief status notes, followed by a section detailing identification, and concludes with a section on voice. Accompanying most species accounts is a small colour map showing breeding, wintering and migrant range.

Most of the species covered in the main part of the book are regular breeding, wintering or migrant species in the book's area of coverage, although some vagrants are also included. There are additional sections giving brief accounts of (a) vagrants and (b) introduced breeding species and species recorded only as escapes.

References

1. ^ Mullarney, Killian; Svensson, Lars; Zetterstrom, Dan; Grant, Peter (1999). Collins Bird Guide. Collins. ISBN 0-00-219728-6. 
2. ^ Golley, Mark (1999). "Book review: Collins bird guide". Birding World 12 (6): 254–5. 
3. ^ Svensson, Lars; Grant, Peter; Mullarney, Killian; Zetterstrom, Dan (1999). Fågelguiden : Europas och Medelhavsområdets Fåglar i Fält. Bonnier. ISBN 978-91-34-51038-8. 
4. ^ Svensson, Lars (1999). "The birth of a new field guide". Birding World 12 (2): 78–80. 
5. ^ "Collins Bird Guide, second edition". HarperCollins. http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/Our_Titles/Pages/Home.aspx?objID=36363. Retrieved 2009-11-23.