Birds of the Middle East (Helm Field Guides)

This was an excellent guide for my recent trip to Palestine/Israel. Well organised and clear, with good illustrations and maps. It was small enough to have with me in my bag all the time, but comprehensive enough to be usable and readable.I would have enjoyed the birds I saw anyway, even if I hadn't had access to their names, but the enjoyment is somehow multiplied when you see a bird unknown to you and identify it in the guide. That large kingfisher in a tree by Galilee - a white-throated kingfisher. That tiny streak of iridescent blue-green in Jerusalem turns into a Palestine Sunbird. The large raptor in the valley across from Bethlehem became a short-toed snake eagle, and the unfamiliar warbler on the walk down from the Mount of Beatitudes was a Graceful Prinia. I had never heard of a bulbul, let alone a white-spectacled one, and the ubiquitous small doves were laughing doves. I would have known none of this without this guide, and recommend it to you enthusiastically.

Since the first edition book I use it and has helped me a lot to know most of the birds I saw.I have got the new edition from Amazonand my comments:1. update names and status (not all) and add new species .2. the maps in the first edition covers the breeding areas only but in the new edition covering areas of migration and winter.3. new illustrations for some species especially excellent plates for Plovers and Sandpipers.4. Description of the bird in the corresponding page of the color plate. Instead of find in the following pages, as in first editionhowever I see that there are 4 cons:1. maps are not accurate in determining places especially Central Arabia.(for example Riyadh once at the top and once at the bottom sometimes the right or left)!!!2. the new illustrations of Terns is bad so i think the old is best.3.the most birds of prey are drawing in the Flight mode only !!!i used the collins birds guide for europe when I saw juvenile goshawk on the tree !4-not status update for some species for example laughing dove and white-eared bulbul it is now in most of central arabia!However because its only guide to Arabian birds you need one if you come to birding.Update : after some years from second edition , and after many of birders records, I think we need to 3rd edition .

One of the better ID guides for Kindle with decent illustrations that can be enlarged without too much distortion with maps and text adjacent to each species in standard field guide format. Each species can be accessed instantly by the back index. Concise and informative descriptions too.Cannot access the vocalizations as there are no links though I was unaware they were included: not too fussed about these as I have all of them in other media, but it would've been nice to have them.Recommended

I purchased the second edition of this book a couple of years ago in advance of my move to Riyadh and have brought it along on field trips all over Saudi Arabia. Overall I found it great, the illustrations are excellent and having descriptions on the page opposite is a big help. The book is just about the right size to carry on field trips and so far the binding seems to be tolerating some very rough treatment very well. I have a couple of little gripes with it though which is why I did not give it 5 stars; the maps are not always accurate which I find a bit of a pain when planning trips or trying to identify difficult birds, additionally, I hate guides the do cross comparisons between birds as a means of identification, saying a bird is slightly bigger than xx is really of little help in the field unless you have the two standing side by side.That said I would recommend this book to birders travelling to the region.

Bought this for our upcoming holiday to Egypt and Jordan. We are travelling extremely light so this will be ideal as well as space saving. The interface is a bit clunky but usable. Pity the Search Facility doesn't appear to work.It really needs an iPad rather than an iPhone as pages can't be zoomed into...Just about recommended!