New Titles

 

1) Broughton, Richard. The Marsh Tit and The Willow Tit. 2025. T & AD Poyser. Flexibound: 304 pages. Price: $50.00 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: The Marsh Tit and the Willow Tit are two small birds of woodlands and forests extending from Great Britain to Japan. They are resourceful, resilient, vocal and bold. Both species are an important part of our natural heritage and are sentinels of our wooded ecosystems, sensitive to habitat changes that send their populations into decline and signalling problems in these precious habitats.

     In this first monograph for either species, Richard Broughton reveals the intricacies of the remarkable lives of these birds, bringing together decades of personal study and a detailed review of the wider research from Europe and Asia. We learn about each species' taxonomy, communication, food and foraging patterns, habitats, social organisation, breeding behaviour and dispersal, as well as exploring the challenges they face and their future prospects.

     With more than 150 illustrations, including unique maps, charts and colour photographs, The Marsh Tit and The Willow Tit brings together a wealth of information surrounding these fascinating species and considers how we can better understand and conserve them.

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a MUST-HAVE for those with a serious interest in this pair of tits! 

 

 

2) Strange, Morten. A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Indonesia: Updated Second Edition. 2025. Tuttle Publishing. Flexibound: 544 pages. Price: $34.99 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Indonesia is the most extensive photographic reference available for Indonesia's incredible birdlife.

     Home to the world's most diverse avifauna, Indonesia's vast size and unique geography make it a premier destination for bird-watching enthusiasts. With over 1,600 species—including 235 rare species found nowhere else—Indonesia is a treasure trove for nature lovers.

     This field guide profiles 912 species, featuring concise descriptions and photographs for each, including most non-migratory and endemic species, as well as numerous threatened and endangered birds. Every entry includes a detailed distribution map, while the updated edition showcases nearly 100 newly added or improved photographs, carefully chosen to highlight each bird's defining features.

     Designed for accessibility and ease of use, the guide also includes an index of common names, making it an essential companion for bird enthusiasts exploring Indonesia's extraordinary wildlife. 

 

RECOMMENDATION: I see this book as a useful supplement to the standard field guides to the region.

3) Milton, Nicholas. The Birdman of Auschwitz: The Life of Günther Niethammer, the Ornithologist Seduced by the Nazis. 2024. Pen and Sword History. Hardbound: 225 pages. Price: $39.95 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: When Soviet troops were liberating Auschwitz concentration camp in January 1945 among the piles of half burnt corpses and emaciated prisoners left behind, they were amazed to find nesting boxes for birds. The same boxes were found in the walled garden at the house of Rudolf Hoess, the notorious camp commandant. In his safe, they also discovered a research paper on the birds of Auschwitz with a personal dedication. It read ‘I owe this to the great understanding which the commandant of Konzentrationslager Auschwitz, SS-Sturmbannführer Höß, gave to the scientific development of this area and the research tasks that the German expansion in the East brings with it.’

     The nesting boxes and research paper belonged to one of the most erudite but naive guards ever to serve at the camp, Dr. Günther Niethammer. On his arrival in 1940 Niethammer’s passion for birds soon became known throughout Auschwitz and led to him being assigned to ‘special duties’ by Hoess. So instead of guard duties, Niethammer shot game to order for commandant and conducted the most infamous bird survey of all time.

     Turning a blind eye to the heinous treatment of the prisoners and the extermination of the Jews, Niethammer instead shot birds and created a macabre museum of bird skins at the camp working with one of the inmates. After leaving Auschwitz, he carried out further bird surveys in occupied Crete, Bulgaria, and Italy. When the war was finally over Niethammer was put on trial but spent just 3 years in prison before returning to the Museum Koenig where his career, although tainted by association with Auschwitz, still flourished until his death in 1974.

     This is the story of the one of the greatest ornithologists of his generation who was seduced by the Nazis and became 'The Birdman of Auschwitz'.

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a must-read for anyone with an interest in World War 2 and/or ornithological history!

 

4) Aulagnier, Stéphane et al.. Field Guide to Mammals of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East: Third Edition. 2025. Bloomsbury Wildlife. Paperback: 320 pages. Price: $40.00 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Fully revised and updated, this major work presents all species that occur in the Western Palearctic, serving as the perfect field guide to the great diversity of mammals in the region. This new edition presents 86 new species, including 40 cetaceans, and reports on the latest scientific advances and taxonomic changes.

     Species accounts are concise and authoritative, giving information on size, distribution, habitat, behaviour, reproduction and feeding. Each account is supported by distribution maps and superb colour illustrations. The book features over 125 plates, comprising more than 650 colour species artworks. Variation between the sexes is illustrated, and anatomical diagrams including tooth arrays are provided to assist identification.

     Field Guide to Mammals of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East is the only guide you'll need to identify any mammal across the Western Palearctic.

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a MUST-HAVE for anyone with an interest in European mammals!

 

5) Witton, Mark P.. King Tyrant: A Natural History of Tyrannosaurus rex. 2025. Princeton University Press. Hardbound: 310 pages. Price: $39.95 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Tyrannosaurus rex is the world’s favorite dinosaur, adored by the public and the subject of intense study and debate by paleontologists. This stunningly illustrated book brings together everything we have learned about T. rex—the “King of the Tyrant Lizards”—since it was first given its famous name in 1905. It presents these creatures as science knows them rather than the version portrayed in movies, revealing them to be dramatically different, and far more amazing, than ever imagined. With numerous original paintings and diagrams by the author, King Tyrant draws on the latest discoveries to offer a modern understanding of Tyrannosaurus, pulling back the curtain of media hype that often obscures these extraordinary extinct animals while cementing their reputation as the most formidable carnivores of the Mesozoic.

• Features more than 150 breathtaking illustrations, photos, and diagrams
• Covers everything from the research history of T. rex to their anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, behavior, and extinction
• Reveals how the Tyrannosaurus known to science is characterized as much by radical changes in body form throughout its growth as its enormous size and powerful jaws
• Discloses details about their lifestyles and behavior evidenced from fossils, from violent face-biting between rivals to their capacity to literally pull the heads off Triceratops carcasses
• Gets to the bottom of the many controversies surrounding T. rex, such as: Was there really more than one species of Tyrannosaurus? Did they live and hunt in groups? How fast could they run and how hard could they bite? Can we truly distinguish males from females?
• Discusses T. rex in popular culture, showing how our love for this dinosaur has both helped and hindered research

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a MUST-HAVE for anyone with an interest in T. rex!

 

 

6) Kuper, Peter. Insectopolis: A Natural History. 2025. W. W. Norton. Hardbound: 256 pages. Price: $35.00 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Award-winning cartoonist Peter Kuper transports readers through the 400-million-year history of insects and the remarkable entomologists who have studied them.

     This visually immersive work of graphic nonfiction dives into a world where ants, cicadas, bees, and butterflies visit a library exhibition that displays their stories and humanity’s connection to them throughout the ages. Kuper’s thrilling visual feast layers history and science, color and design, to tell the remarkable tales of dung beetles navigating by the stars, hawk-size prehistoric dragonflies hunting prey, and mosquitoes changing the course of human history.

     Kuper also illuminates pioneering naturalists, from well-known figures like E. O. Wilson and Rachel Carson to unheralded luminaries like Charles Henry Turner, the Black American scholar who documented arthropod intelligence, and Maria Sybilla Merian, the seventeenth-century German regarded as the mother of entomology.

     Galvanized by the sixth extinction and the ongoing insect crisis, Kuper takes readers on an unforgettable journey.

RECOMMENDATION: There's a companion coloring book for this title for $18.99 U.S.. This graphic novel would be a good way to introduce children and the general public to entomological history.

New Titles

 

 

1) Beehler, Bruce M.. Flight of the Godwit: Tracking Epic Shorebird Migrations. 2025. Smithsonian Books. Hardbound: 264 pages. Price: $27.95 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY:  Flying more than 8,000 miles from Alaska to eastern Australia without stopping to eat or rest, the Bar-tailed Godwit holds the record for the longest nonstop migration of any land bird in the world. Flight of the Godwit invites readers on ornithologist Bruce M. Beehler's awe-inspiring journey in search of North America's largest and farthest-flying shorebirds. Driving 35,000 miles between 2019 to 2023, Beehler sought birds he dubs the "Magnificent Seven":

• Hudsonian Godwit
• Bar-tailed Godwit
• Marbled Godwit
• Whimbrel
• Long-billed Curlew
• Bristle-thighed Curlew
• Upland Sandpiper

     Beehler interweaves colorful fieldwork stories and rich details on local culture with the natural history and biology of shorebirds—including evolution, the physics of migration, orientation, homing, foraging, diet, nesting, parental care, wintering, staging, elusive "super-migrators," and the importance of conservation efforts.

     With authoritative prose and 30 beautiful black-and-white illustrations from artist Alan T. Messer, the book journeys through 37 states and 9 Canadian provinces from Texas to Alaska to Canada's High Arctic. Flight of the Godwit is a captivating adventure and a tribute to remarkable birds and birding itself.

RECOMMENDATION: If you enjoyed Hall's A Gathering of Shore Birds and/or Matthiessen's The Wind Birds, you should like this book! 

 

2) Rivel, Deborah and Kellye Rosenheim. Birdwatching in New York City and on Long Island: Second Edition. 2025. Brandeis University Press. Paperback: 325 pages. Price: $35.00 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Over five hundred species of birds can be seen in New York City’s five boroughs and on Long Island, one of the most densely populated and urbanized regions in North America, which also happens to be situated directly on the Atlantic Flyway. In this fragmented environment where resources are scarce, birds congregate in small spaces—Central Park alone attracts over 225 species of birds (not to mention birders from around the world who flock to the park during spring and fall migration). Beyond Central Park, the five boroughs and Long Island boast numerous wildlife refuges of extraordinary scenic beauty where resident and migratory birds inhabit forests, wetlands, grasslands, and beaches. These places present a unique opportunity to see a wide array of songbirds, endangered nesting shorebirds, raptors, and an unprecedented number and variety of waterfowl.
 
      The fully updated edition of this easy-to-use guide provides year-round information for both popular birding sites as well as those off the beaten path. Precise directions to the best viewing locations within the region’s diverse habitats enable birdwatchers to explore urban and wild birding hot spots. Including the latest information on the seasonal status and distribution of more than four hundred species, and featuring thirty-nine maps and over fifty photographs, this full-color guide offers information essential to locals and visitors alike. This is the go-to book for both longtime birders and those exploring the area for the first time.

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a must-have for anyone birding New York City and/or Long Island! 

 

3) Menzies, Graeme. Bones: The Life and Adventures of Dr Archibald Menzies (1754–1842). 2024. Whittles Publishing. Paperback: 142 pages. Price: $23.95 U.S.

 

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Archibald Menzies (1754–1842) is recognized as an accomplished botanist but that is only a part of his story. In this compelling new biography, the author reveals that Archibald Menzies was a remarkable product of the Scottish Enlightenment: a boy raised in the shadows of ancient Neolithic standing stones who was sponsored by his clan chief to study in Edinburgh and through talent, curiosity, perseverance, and circumstance became one of the top medical doctors and social raconteurs of Victorian London.

     Readers learn of Archibald's experience as a Royal Navy surgeon in the epic Caribbean Battle of The Saintes, his encounters with the Indigenous people of Pacific Northwest Coast and the islands of Hawaii, his near court-martial by Captain Vancouver, his life-threatening and little-known experiments in the nascent field of virology, and his post-navy life in London. The result of this work is not just a full accounting of Archibald's career but which also provides insights into his character and personality. His attitude toward issues such as slavery, human rights, religion, and the opportunities and dangers of European contact with Indigenous peoples are explored and show a man of intelligence, compassion, and wisdom. 

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a must-read for anyone with an interest in Archibald Menzies.  

 

4) Graham, Edward. Clouds: How to Identify Nature’s Most Fleeting Forms. 2025. Princeton University Press. Hardbound: 224 pages. Price: $29.95 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: A one-of-a-kind illustrated guide to clouds, cloud formations, and the artists who painted them. 

     The mystery of clouds has captivated scientists and artists alike. This unique book shows you how to use the meteorological techniques of nephology to identify these elusive and transmutable shapes. It curates, classifies, and measures every species—including those recently discovered—considering the height, size, texture, arrangement, modifications, and movement of their many shifting forms. Clouds blends a lively and engaging narrative by one of today’s leading meteorologists with an essay on historic cloud art, and includes a wealth of breathtaking cloud studies by some of the greatest artists ever to look skyward.

• Presents a “taxonomic” approach to identification, applying the basic laws of geometry to quantify and measure clouds and cloud formations
• Showcases artists who painted clouds from a scientific viewpoint, such as John Constable, Frederic Edwin Church, J.M.W. Turner, and Caspar David Friedrich
• Tells the stories of the physicists and painters who have attempted to record the many different incarnations of clouds
• Explains the physics of clouds, from the basic constituents of Earth’s atmosphere to cloud formation and dissipation, the colors and shades of clouds, the development of precipitation, and the timescale evolution of clouds
• Discusses the classification and naming of clouds
• Serves as a user-friendly reference guide to low, midlevel, and high cloud species
• Includes charts, infographics, and a glossary of terms

RECOMMENDATION: This book is one part art book and one part meteorological textbook. It's a must-have for anyone with a serious interest in clouds!

New Titles

 

 

1) Scherzinger, Wolfgang and Theodor Mebs. Owls of Europe: Biology, Identification and Conservation. 2025. Helm. Hardbound: 416 pages. Price: $80.00 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: An essential compendium on the biology, identification, distribution and conservation of Europe's 13 species of owls.

     Owls are fascinating birds, with remarkable adaptations for their lives as nocturnal hunters. Covering the 13 species of owls that occur across the continent, Owls of Europe features detailed drawings of typical positions, behaviours and facial expressions, alongside more than 300 photos selected to demonstrate age and subspecific variation, colour phases and the birds in flight.

     This book includes up-to-date distribution maps and the latest European population estimates, along with detailed text on behaviour, voice, brood biology and juvenile development, life strategies, hunting techniques, choice of prey and habitat requirements for each species. It also explores human interactions with owls, from the threats posed to determined conservation efforts.

     Owls of Europe is an essential book for birdwatchers, professional ornithologists and those who simply love owls.

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a MUST-HAVE for anyone with an interest in European Owls!

 

 

2) Ridley, Matt. Birds, Sex and Beauty: The Extraordinary Implications of Charles Darwin's Strangest Idea. 2025. Harper. Hardbound: 352 pages. Price: $30.00 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: The New York Times bestselling author of Genome and The Evolution of Everything revisits Darwin’s revelatory theory of mate choice through the close study of the peculiar rituals of birds, and considers how this mating process complicates our own view of human evolution.

     In all animals, mating is a deal. But few creatures behave as if sex is a simple, even mutually beneficial, transaction. Many more treat it with reverence, suspicion, angst, and violence. In the case of the Black Grouse, the bird at the center of Matt Ridley’s investigation, the males dance and sing for hours a day, for several exhausting months, in an arduous and even deadly ritual called a “lek.” To prepare for the ordeal, they grow, preen and display fancy, twisted, bold-colored feathers. When achieved, consummation with a female takes seconds. So why the months of practice and preparation that is elaborate, extravagant, exhausting and elegant?

     The full answer remains a mystery. Evolutionary biologists can explain why males are generally the eager sellers, females the discriminating buyers. But they struggle to explain why, in some species, this extravagance goes beyond the mere gaudy, taking on bizarre shapes, postures, and behavior. And further, why these bird displays seem beautiful to us humans, a species with seemingly no skin in the game.

     Using an early morning “lek" as his starting point, Ridley explores the scientific research into the evolution of bright colors, exotic ornaments, and elaborate displays in birds around the world. Charles Darwin thought the purpose of such displays was to "charm" females. Though Darwin’s theory was initially dismissed and buried for decades, recent scientific research has proven him newly right—there is a powerful evolutionary force quite distinct from natural selection: mate choice. In Birds, Sex and Beauty, Ridley reopens the history of Darwin’s vexed theory, laying bare a century of disagreement about an idea so powerful, so weird, and so wonderful, we may have yet to fully understand its implications. 

RECOMMENDATION: If you enjoyed Richard Prum's The Evolution of Beauty, you should like this book too!

 

3) Rüppell, Georg and Dagmar Hilfert-Rüppell. Dragonfly Behavior: Discovering the Dynamic Life of an Ancient Order of Insects. 2024. ‎ Springer. Hardbound: 229 pages. Price: $39.99 U.S.

 

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: This book is the first to allow you to experience the details of the ultra-fast lives of dragonflies, these large, beautiful flying insects, through an abundance of unique snapshots and image sequences. Dragonflies are world champions of flight, bionic wonders; they reveal much about the mysteries of evolution. We witness their social interaction, and appreciate their success over three hundred million years. Dragonflies - what an evocative name! - are easy to observe, even for beginners. About 80 species live in Germany, and every body of water is home to a few. They are not shy, do not sting and often come very close. Perhaps you will fall in love with dragonflies - just like the two authors who have been studying them for over 30 years. With the knowledge in this book, you will look at dragonflies in a completely novel way. 

 

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a well illustrated overview of dragonfly behavior.

4) Williams, David B.. Wild in Seattle: Stories at the Crossroads of People and Nature. 2025.  Mountaineers Books. Paperback: 222 pages. Price: $22.95 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: For award-winning natural history writer David B. Williams, to be connected to a place you need to pause and look deeply at it. Wild in Seattle is Williams’ delightful journey of discovery in this city where not only is nature all around, it’s also written in the stones of the urban landscape. Explore the geologic history of glaciers, tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanoes as well as the ways humans shape the Seattle topography. From backyards to downtown, watch for coyotes, crows, seals, otters, owls, and so much more wildlife who also call the region home. Look up at the buildings to find terra cotta eagles, stone that traveled over millions of years from Asia to the San Juan Islands, and clues to the horses who used to power the city’s transportation network. Wrap your arms around a giant Douglas-fir, appreciate the unsung yet remarkable skunk cabbage, stop and listen to the spring chorus of frogs.

      This book features:

• More than 40 essays dive into the geology, animals, plants, and architecture that shape Seattle
• Fully illustrated by celebrated local artist Elizabeth Person
• Fun and fascinating sidebars explore regional vocabulary, scientific terms, and Indigenous language phrases

RECOMMENDATION: If you like the author's The Street-Smart Naturalist (2005), you should like this book.