Helm Avifaunas – serie

The parks, reservoirs, rooftops and gardens of London – here defined as the area within 20 miles of St Paul’s Cathedral – have a surprisingly rich avifauna, including a healthy population of one of Britain’s rarest breeders, the Black Redstart. The region also has a remarkable list of rarities – in recent years Canary Wharf has proven to be a magnet for vagrants, while one of the very few British records of Tengmalm’s Owl hails from Plaistow – an unfortunate bird stoned to death by local urchins in 1877.Some species, like the Peregrine Falcon, Black-headed Gull and Ring-necked Parakeet, have seen their fortunes soar over recent decades; others, such as House Sparrow, have suffered a population collapse. While as recently as a century ago, the London area had breeding populations of birds such as Wryneck and Red-backed Shrike, which are now nationally extinct. The status, distribution and history of every species on the regional list is discussed in rich detail in this book, the first comprehensive avifauna for the London area ever published.The County Avifauna series provides detailed information on the range and status of bird species at county level. Areas covered in the series so far include Norfolk, Suffolk, Dorset, the Shetland Islands, Leicestershire and Rutland, Essex and Gwent. Each title covers all species on the county list, with a breakdown of rarity records, and there are introductory sections describing the area’s ecology, its ornithological history, as well as a review of the best sites to visit.

This authoritative title is the definitive avifauna covering the Iberian Peninsula.The Iberian Peninsula is one of Europe's most ornithologically varied regions offering a host of regional specialities. It includes famous birding hotspots such as the Coto Donaña wetlands, mountainous areas such as the Picos de Europa and the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean cork and holm oak forests of the southwest, the migration crossroads of the Strait of Gibraltar and the steppe-like plains of Extremadura and Alentejo. Large numbers of birders from around Europe visit the region to see this wealth of winged wildlife, but to date there has been no comprehensive regional avifauna in English.Birds of the Iberian Peninsula is a national avifauna that fills this gap in the ornithological literature. Full-colour throughout, the book begins with authoritative introductory chapters covering subjects such as geography, climate, habitats, the history of Iberian ornithology and the composition of the avifauna. The species accounts then cover every species recorded in mainland Spain, the Balearic Islands, Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra, including the many vagrants.For each species there is detailed treatment of distribution – with maps of breeding and wintering ranges – habitat selection, population trends, historical and current status, migration and conservation.

Birds of Liberia contains distributions, biology and other ornithological information on the birds of this West African country.In geographical terms, Liberia is still regarded as one of the least known areas of Africa. An inventory of its birds was only undertaken for the first time in the 1960s and 1970s. Liberia has the most extensive area of rainforest within the Upper Guinea region of West Africa. In 1980, half the country was covered by primary forest and ­significant areas of lowland rainforest were only first surveyed after 1981.This book is the result of 15 years of research by the author and includes a complete checklist of the birds of the region. It contains distribution maps for 400 species as well as a wealth of other ornithological information. Fresh insights are given into the impact of forest destruction on the distribution of species.There is also new information on the movement of diurnal migrants and the numbers and ecology of migrant Palearctic and Afrotropical species. Of particular interest are the recently ­discovered endemic species in the region of Mt. Nimba which straddles the border of Guinea and the Ivory Coast.This book adds considerably to our knowledge of West African birds and will be regarded as a model for future studies of the area.