For Christmas 2010, I received a copy of a book called Advanced Bird ID Guide: The Western Palaearctic by Dutch birder and bird identification specialist Nils van Duivendijk. It was (still is) a compact, paperback volume — all text, no images — covering every plumage of all 1,300 species and subspecies of bird recorded in Britain, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
That’s a lot of birds to fit into a little book.
While that book is a handy and remarkably slim volume, the text is tiny, and the lack of images means it’s not exactly the most user-friendly or aesthetically satisfying of bird ID guides. Utilitarian in the extreme, it is useful when you need to look up specific ID features that help separate confusion species when tricky identification challenges present themselves. However, it is not a book that’s easy to get to grips with, or that your average birder is likely to pick up and peruse at leisure for the sheer enjoyment of it.
Fast forward to 2025, and Van Duivendijk is back, collaborating with photographer Marc Guyt to deliver the spectacular new two-volume fully illustrated ID Handbook of European Birds. And it’s a triumph!
Published by Princeton University Press, this impressive work details the ID characteristics of 733 species of birds known to occur in Europe. It is split into two volumes, with Volume 1 covering non-passerines, Volume 2 covering passerines, with detailed individual species accounts highlighting key identification features, including moults, age and gender. Crucially, this time, each species account is beautifully illustrated with a range of superb photographs by Marc Guyt/AGAMI showing the species in an array of different plumages and poses. There are 5,500 images making both volumes a visual feast. It is a joy to flick through the books, and the labelled images make it so much easier to pin down the crucial ID features that the previous text-only guide.
In practical terms, these are bulky volumes, and not something you’re ever going to carry with you in the field. They are, however, incredibly useful if you struggle to nail identification of a bird in the field, or need that crucial diagnostic feature to clinch identification of a rare species. In these pages you’ll find details you’ll struggle to find in most ID guides — things like a page dedicated to the tail-patterns of Long-legged Buzzard, for example, with descriptions and close up images to illustrate. There are examples like that throughout both volumes where a particular feature is critical to identification, but even the regular species profiles are full of detailed plumage and biometric details to help you separate difficult species.
How much utility you get out of these books depends on where and how you go birding — but whatever your approach to birding, these books are a wonderful treasure trove of bird ID information that would be a fantastic addition to any birders bookshelf. The presentation is clear, the images are excellent, and it’s a joy to leaf through them just for the sheer pleasure of it. If you encounter a tricky species in the field, having access to these books, along with your notes or photographs of the bird, will be invaluable in getting an accurate species ID. They are also a great way to brush up your ID knowledge on species you don’t encounter very often, potential rarities before spring or autumn migration, for example, or perhaps to gen up on features for key species before a trip to part of the region you haven’t visited before.
Overall, these books are something I can see myself turning to again and again over the coming years, and I’d highly recommend these volumes as an invaluable addition to any birder’s collection of reference books.
ID Handbook of European Birds, by Nils van Duivendijk is published by Princeton University Press and costs around €80-€100, depending on offers and where you buy. You’ll find the two-volume set available through all the usual online channels (including Amazon.ie here) or should have no problem ordering it via any good local bookshop.
Here’s the ISBN for reference.
ISBN-10 : 0691253579
ISBN-13 : 978-0691253572
