Gulls of Europe, Asia and North America

K M Olsen & H Larsson

Revised edition. Helm Identification Guide covering 43 species of gulls, both familiar seabirds as well as some little-known and globally threatened species. This group of birds is notorious for posing identification problems. Gulls are also great travellers with many North American species wandering to the UK and causing both confusion and excitement for British birders. Contains comprehensive text with colour plates, and confusion species are covered in particular detail. Size 240 x 170mm.

The gulls are a large family of seabirds, familiar and distinctive as a group, but one of the most challenging to separate at the species level, especially in their various stages of immature plumage. This guide offers the most comprehensive treatment ever published on the gulls of North America, Europe, and Asia. Klaus Malling Olsen and Hans Larsson treat a total of forty-three species-each depicted in considerable detail, with a full description of every plumage and racial variation. The text is complemented not only by superb colour paintings by Larsson, but also by 800 colour photographs.

Gulls explore a variety of habitats, consume a wide range of food, and are often extremely abundant. They are also great wanderers, with several American species often appearing in Western Europe and vice versa. As well as identification criteria, this book includes an up-to-date assessment of the range and status of every species, together with information on patterns of vagrancy.

This important guide is published at a critical time in the development of gull taxonomy. The large white-headed gulls found in North America, Europe, and Asia comprise a superspecies complex, with the precise relationships between various components still under considerable debate. A thorough illustrative and textual treatment of the group is needed, and this book provides the most recent and complete overview. This is the essential reference to a fascinating and endlessly challenging group of birds. 608 pages.

Hardback £50.00 £44.99