Book review: The World's Rarest Birds, by Erik Hirschfeld, Andy Swash and Robert Still

by Erik Hirschfeld, Andy Swash and Robert Still

Princeton University Press

According to the latest assessment by BirdLife International, 590 bird species are threatened with extinction. Of these, 197 are critically endangered, 389 are endangered and the remaining four can only be found in captivity.

These 590 species are the focus of The World's Rarest Birds. Individual accounts of all of these birds are placed in seven regional directories - six continents and the oceanic islands. The accounts summarise the distribution and population of each species, and detail any threats faced and any conservation measures being undertaken. All of the species are illustrated, 515 with colour photographs and the remaining 75 - for which no photographs are available - with paintings by Polish artist Tomasz Cofta. The accounts are readable and jargon-free; the standard of the images is very high (although Cofta's paintings may not be to everybody's taste) and the design and production values are outstanding.

But the book is more than this. In a series of mini-essays in the introduction and the regional directories, the authors examine in some detail the causes for the decline of bird populations and focus on families of birds that face specific conservation challenges as well as threatened bird hotspots. In light of the notion that birds "are good indicators of environmental states and changes, serving as a proxy for all biodiversity", these pages make for depressing reading.