98 © British Birds 102 • February 2009 • 98–100

The BB/BTO Best BirdBook of the Year 2008

British Birds and the British Trust for Ornithology announce the winner of the Award for BEST BIRD BOOK OF THE YEAR.All books reviewed in British Birds or the BTO publications BTO News and Bird Study during the year 2008 were eligible

for consideration for this Award.

It is inevitable with long-running awardssuch as this that there are year-to-year varia-tions in overall quality, but the seven judges

who gathered at the BTO’s 75th Anniversaryconference in December were agreed that thecrop of books eligible for the 2008 award was aparticularly good one, in terms of both qualityand diversity. This is reflected in the number of‘special mentions’ we felt obliged to refer to,once the business of the main shortlist wassettled. On this evidence, the growing impor-tance of the internet has apparently not affectedbook publishing adversely.

Over 90 titles were eligible for this year’scompetition, and the initial shortlist comprised16 books. After three rather protracted roundsof voting that took up most of an afternoon, 11of these books received at least some points inthe final vote. We remind readers that there areno formal judging criteria for the award – thediversity of style and content makes formalcomparisons difficult and subjective. Our aim istherefore to highlight books of special meritthat we feel will be appreciated widely amongthe BB readership and BTO members.

WINNER:The Migration Ecology of BirdsBy Ian Newton. Academic Press, London, 2008.Reviewed in BB by Mike Pennington (Brit. Birds101: 268).Having stressed the depth and variety of thecontenders, it may come as a surprise that thewinner was in fact one of the clearest winnersfor some years (five judges ultimately placed it

in first place, and the other two in second). IanNewton has won this award twice before (mostrecently in 2004 with The Speciation and Bio-geography of Birds, before that in 1980 with Pop-ulation Ecology of Raptors) and this book surelycements his position as one of the world’sleading authors in terms of the ability to com-municate bird-related science and ecology. Thisis quite simply a fantastic book. Its subjectmatter fascinates everyone to some degree (agood start) but it is Ian’s ability to convey infor-mation in a way that can be used by students atall levels, from casually interested amateurs topost-doctoral workers, that marks it out. It iscomprehensive, thoroughly researched andbeautifully written; the science reported and the

literature summarised are bang up to date,treating major research and less mainstreamideas and theories equally well. This book is(another) tour de force and we recommend itunreservedly.

2nd:Birds of Wiltshire Compiled by James Ferguson-Lees, Paul Castle,Peter Cranswick, Stephen Edwards, Pete Combridge, Rob Turner and Linda Cady for theWiltshire Ornithological Society. WOS, Devizes,2007. Reviewed in BB by John Clark (Brit. Birds101: 100–101).

The clutch ofexceptionallyh i g h - q u a l i t ycounty avi-faunas on theinitial shortlistfor this awardhas perhapsnever been b e t t e r e d .C h o o s i n gbetween themwas not at alls t r a i g h t f o r -ward, yet Birds

of Wiltshire emerged eventually as a unanimouschoice to be singled out. The maps of distribu-tion and relative abundance for regularly occur-ring birds in both summer and winter areperhaps the most obvious feature that marks itout from the others; these, combined with thehabitat overlays, are particularly fascinating forthe county’s breeding birds. Added to that, it isnicely published, and extremely well writtenand edited. The fact that it picked up sufficientvotes (being on the final shortlist of each of theseven judges) to edge into second place is atribute to the editors of this book in particular,but also more generally to the quality of theother county avifaunas we considered andwhich are listed below.

3rd:Birds and People: bonds in a timeless journeyBy Nigel Collar, Adrian Long, Patricio Robles Giland Jaime Rojo. CEMEX-Agrupación SierraMadre-BirdLife International, Mexico City, 2007.Reviewed in BB by Paul Harvey (Brit. Birds 101:266–267).In some ways perhaps a surprising choice for

the top three, since it is unmistakeably a coffee-table book (that term is intended to be descrip-tive rather than value-laden). However, mostjudges were impressed with its combination ofstunning photographs and an elegant, insightfultext that deals with an important issue in a worldwhere theh u m a ninf luence is now soprominent– the rela-t i o n s h i pb e t w e e nbirds andpeople.

4th:Petrels Night and DayBy Magnus Robb, Killian Mullarney and The Sound Approach. The Sound Approach,Poole, Dorset, 2008. Reviewed in BB by Bob Flood(Brit. Birds 101: 628–629).The second offering from The Sound Approachstable (following The Sound Approach Guide toBirding, which won this award in 2006) isanother cracker. It is characterised by itsunusual shape, extremely high-quality produc-tion and superb illustrations. We enjoyedMagnus Robb’s narrative of his travels aroundthe petrel hotspots of the Western Palearctic inparticular, yet it is the two CDs of vocalisationsthat represent the heart of the project. We antic-ipate more good things from this team in duecourse.

5th:The Birds of ScotlandEdited by R. W. Forrester and I. J. Andrews, withC. J. McInerny, R. D. Murray, R. Y. McGowan, B.Zonfrillo, M. W. Betts, D. C. Jardine and D. S.Grundy. Scottish Ornithologists’ Club, Aberlady,2007. Reviewed in BB by Martin Collinson (Brit.Birds 101: 162–163).Some readers might be surprised that ‘BS3’ is infifth place and not higher, perhaps even awinner. As with Birds and People, the judges’ranking ranged from top to unlisted and thesetwo books polarised opinion more than anyothers. In many ways this book is monumen-tally impressive, it is bigger and heavier thananything else on our shortlist, it is magnifi-cently produced, with a multitude of (generally)

99British Birds 102 • February 2009 • 98–100

The BB/BTO Best Bird Book of the Year 2008

excellent photos. The difficulties of managingan editorial project on this scale clearly pre-sented some difficulties, however, and therestrictive nature of the guidelines presented toauthors created a set of texts which are not uni-formly impressive; nonetheless, we felt that itwas entirely appropriate that this milestone ofScottish ornithology was placed on our finalshortlist.

6th:Lost Land of the Dodo: an ecological history ofMauritius, Réunion and RodriguesBy Anthony Cheke and Julian Hume. T. & A. D.Poyser, A&C Black, London, 2008. Reviewed inBB by Ian Carter (Brit. Birds 101: 629–630).One of two ‘Poysers’ on our final shortlist – theother being The Greater Flamingo, by AlanJohnson and Frank Cézilly, see Brit. Birds 101:630–631 – both of them entirely worthy addi-tions to this landmark series. In terms of thisaward, they may have suffered slightly fromdealing with areas or species somewhatremoved from British ornithology in general,yet both will be essential reading for birderswith an interest in the subject matter. In LostLand of the Dodo, the history of the MascareneIslands, researched so well by the authors, hasimportant lessons for the conservation ofthreatened bird species.

With the top six decided, a number of booksremained that we felt we must refer to. First ofall, the other county avifaunas considered thisyear were (in alphabetical order of county/region): Birds of Argyll (Tristan ap Rheinallt,Clive Craik, Paul Daw, Bob Furness, Steve Pettyand David Wood – see Brit. Birds 101: 449); TheBirds of Gwent (W. A. Venables, A. D. Baker, R.M. Clarke, C. Jones, J. M. S. Lewis, S. J. Tyler, I.R. Walker and R. A. Williams – see Brit. Birds101: 633); The Birds of Lancashire and NorthMerseyside (Steve White, Barry McCarthy andMaurice Jones – see Brit. Birds 101: 330–331);Essential Guide to Birds of the Isles of Scilly(Bob Flood, Nigel Hudson and Bryan Thomas –see Brit. Birds 101: 216–217); and Birds ofSurrey (Jeffery J. Wheatley – see Brit. Birds 101:448). These are all extremely fine books, eachone essential reading for anyone with aninterest in the areas concerned, and it would be

invidious to attempt to rank them further here.In each case, the BB review (as listed) willprovide a useful reference.

Rare Birds Yearbook 2008, edited by ErikHirschfeld and published in collaboration withBirdLife (see Brit. Birds 101: 218–219), is thefirst of a planned series of annual publicationsto highlight the world’s most threatened birds.Important and fascinating, albeit somewhatdispiriting according to the BB reviewer, this isa timely, laudable and well-executed concept. Inanticipation of seeing it on a yearly basis, weopted to draw attention to it here rather thaninclude it in the main voting process.

Two other, very different, books made theinitial shortlist and are worth mentioningbriefly here. A Climatic Atlas of EuropeanBreeding Birds, by Brian Huntley, Rhys E.Green, Yvonne C. Collingham and Stephen G.Willis (see Brit. Birds 101: 329), plots wherebirds might occur at the end of this centuryaccording to current best estimates of climatechange. Perhaps likely to be read more avidly byacademics than by birdwatchers, it will givemuch food for thought to its readers anddeserves highlighting simply for the approachand the subject matter. Frontiers in Birding, byMartin Garner and friends (see Brit. Birds 101:689), will be enjoyed by all those keen onkeeping abreast of the latest advances in birdidentification in Britain and includes someexcellent and wide-ranging introductory chap-ters on various aspects of birding.

Finding Birds in Ireland, by Eric Dempseyand Michael Clery (see Brit. Birds 101:103–104), was perhaps a rarity in itself, in beingone of the multitude of ‘Where to Watch’ guidesto make the initial shortlist for this award.Those judges familiar with Ireland were espe-cially impressed with its treatment of sites theyknew, the maps in particular coming in forspecial praise; other, novel features, such as anexcellent map summarising seawatch pointsand the best weather conditions for a visit, willsurely be widely copied.

Last but not least, Vol. 12 of HBW (Hand-book of Birds of the World; see Brit. Birds 101:265–266) arrived on schedule (an aspect of theseries that continues to impress) and we saluteanother tome in this remarkable project.

100 British Birds 102 • February 2009 • 98–100

The BB/BTO Best Bird Book of the Year 2008

Roger Riddington, Dawn Balmer, Andrew Gosler, Peter Hearn, John Marchant, Robin Prytherch and Bob Scottc/o Spindrift, Eastshore, Virkie, Shetland ZE3 9JS