Birds of the Middle East: Second Edition (Princeton Field Guides) Paperback – November 28, 2010

This is a good field guide that covers an area of the word that is not well travelled by Westerners.Positives: These include a good treatment on the status and distribution of the birds of the region. The descriptions are thorough and where applicable, key field marks are BOLD to hi-lite the points. I have found that the habitats and occurrences, by and large, are accurate.Room for Improvement: The plates are respectable. I struggle with inconsistencies of not including birds at rest/perched with some species and not others - specifically with raptors and terns. I also think a much more thorough treatment on gulls of the region would benefit field ornithologists. The taxa is a complex group, especially the fuscus group, such that a more detailed accounting would help understand the status and distribution. Other accounts are not wholly accurate, for birds such as Broad-billed Sandpiper and Spotted Redshank - to name a few - their occurrence in SW Arabia is virtually absent where as the guide says otherwise. The range maps In some instances need to be updated. The Common Kingfisher and Red-vented Bulbul, for instance, occur in SW Arabia yet are not depicted as such. I also found the treatment of stonechats to be confusing. I understand that there is work in process to clear this group up but it is not as clear as it should be.Overall I found this field guide to work well except with the comments above - all of which can be readily worked through with today's internet-based field guides to back fill the short falls.I would recommend this book.

Concise text aimed at ID. Handy range maps and mostly good illustrations,spaciously presented, including some borrowed from other field guides.Includes useful updated Gull section, with latest taxonomic revisions and wingspreads.

When I received this book (2010 edition), I expected the range covered to just barely creep into the caucasus region (discluding the areas of Northeast Turkey and Northwest Iran), as some other field guides I have read have tended to slightly exceed the focused area, but this did not happen. However, just because I found this disappointing, I did not take a complete dislike to this book.This book displays many interesting species of birds. Most illustrations are near perfect, but others seem slightly scrappy. While it includes some birds typically found in the European region, which seem somewhat dull and unappealing, there are many birds, most of them rails, rollers, kingfishers and bee-eaters, that are strikingly coloured and eye-catching. However, I hate to judge a book just because of the appearance of birds it includes; this book contains easily readable distribution maps for birds that commonly occur in the area, almost all birds have plenty of information on general appearance and voice, and even birds that are rarely occuring vagrants are well-illustrated. Many birds have an added 'note' in their information section about their status in a certain country of the region.One bird, the slender-billed curlew, was historically a vagrant to many countries of the region and may now be extinct. It has been included in this book, helpfully. In the introduction of the book, a few birds are admitted to have been purposely discluded from the book, most notably the ostrich.I find this book very helpful and interesting. Though it focuses on the middle east, some may find that it will help with birds from nearby areas. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in birds of the region.

I picked this up prior to a quick visit to Dubai. My European bird field guide has many of the same species, but as vagrants in the European continent. This has much better descriptions of birds likely to be found in the Middle East, and gives a better sense of their distribution in the region. I found it very helpful and am glad to have it in the collection. I hope I get the chance to use it in the region again.

I was looking for birds of Israel/Palestine. a quick look seems to make this rather difficult.

This is a beautifully printed book, high quality paper facilitating reproduction of the illustrations, as good a paperback as one might find, BUT with that, it is heavy. For someone who needs to travel with it as a reference, in fact one can get the same material as a $20 iPhone/iPad "app," which I will purchase prior to the trip for which it is intended. Regardless, I won't mind having the printed book as a reference in my home library.

This became the go-to field guide on our trip to Israel. Well illustrated with good text, making identifications easier and done with more confidence. Wouldn't go back without this one.

A quality scientific work with beautiful illustrations and valuable range maps. The text is both very useful for ornithologists and birders as well as attractively laid out and enjoyable to read.