| Series | |
| Authors | Josep del Hoyo, Andrew Elliott, David A. Christie |
| Language | English |
| ISBN | 9788496553453 |
| Publisher | Lynx Ediciones |
| Pages | 879 |
| Format | 31 x 24 cm |
| Binding | hardcover |
| Pictures | richly illustrated, full color |
| Year of publication | 2008 |
This volume begins with a Foreword by Ian Newton which deals with various aspects of bird migration, such as global patterns, velocities, distances and phenology of migration, the factors that influence it, the ability of birds to orient themselves and so on.
The volume treats 16 families, the largest of which are sunbirds (132 species), the white-eyes (98 species) and the honeyeaters (175 species), which together make up more than two thirds of the 595 species featured in the book. The rest are medium- or small-sized families of between 10 (treecreepers, berrypeckers & longbills) and 44 species (flowerpeckers), and also included are very small families whose species number just one (Wallcreeper) or very few (pardalotes).
It is a book that will be enjoyed by anyone interested in the birds of the Old World, containing basically species of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Pacific Islands, though it also treats a few North American species, such as some members of the families of nuthatches and shrikes, and the enigmatic Verdin (Auriparus flaviceps), Bushtit and Brown Creeper.
In the pages of this volume the reader will find information on the highly social breeding behaviour of some Long-tailed Tits, dwell on the enchanting illustrations of sunbirds and photographs of rare, little-known birds like the White-browed Nuthatch or the capture of the precise instant that a Great Grey Shrike catches a mouse in the snow.
Order PASSERIFORMES
Family Remizidae (penduline-tits)
Family Aegithalidae (Long-tailed Tits)
Family Sittidae (Nuthatches)
Family Tichodromidae (Wall Creeper)
Family Certhiidae (Treecreepers)
Family Rhabdornithidae (Rhabdornis)
Family Nectariniidae (Sunbirds)
Family Melanocharitidae (Berrypeckers and Long Bills)
Family Painted berrypecker (Painted Berrypeckers)
Family Dicaeidae (Flowerpeckers)
Family Pardalotidae (Pardalotes)
Family Zosteropidae (White-eyes)
Family Promeropidae (Sugarbirds)
Family Meliphagidae (Honey Eaters)
Family Oriolidae (Orioles)
Family Laniidae (Shrikes)
