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Review:

This tiny book contains visual and written descriptions of over 230 of the more common European birds. Rather than use the more formals dichotomous key the book divides birds into 27 'family' groups e.g. divers and grebes, gannets and cormorants, waders, pigeons etc. We start the book with this simple key - the name of the family, a silhouette of the bird, a very brief outline and a page reference. Turning to the (colour-coded) family section just identified brings one to a number of pages with the birds displayed. One page per bird with a distribution map, description, juvenile plumage, habitat, nest, voice, general details and one or more photographs as commonly seen. The whole idea is very simple and herein lies its value. Anyone can use this to identify a bird species (or at least get down to generic level). It's pocket-sized and therefore simple for field trips or even work at home or in the playground. A definite must for anyone working at this level - a delightful book.