Book Review

Richard Chandlers new book ‘Shorebirds in Action: an introduction to waders and their behaviour’ is a well-timed addition to the growing literature on this fascinating group of birds.The first thing you notice when you start reading it is that Richard knows his waders personally, and is extremely passionate about them. This comes through strongly in the fantastic language used to describe them in the book’s introduction, and filters through into the rest of the text. This is not a dry account of waders meant for academics and students alone, it is a passionate summary of knowledge that transcends from being purely academic in its writing to being eloquently written to appeal to all birders interested in shorebirds. It does this with excellent emotional prose that does not lose its scientific appeal. The introduction is full of anecdotal accounts of Richard’s own entry into the world of shorebirds, and his frustrations getting to grips with this difficult group of birds – something many of us can relate to. By setting his readers minds at ease with these great stories, he draws us into the world of these fascinating birds, and takes us on a journey to explore the group, and their varied ways of life.The author is up front – this is not meant to be another identification guide, although with the book covering around 80% of the worlds shorebird species, it definitely adds value in that arena. It is rather an exploration intended to draw the reader deeper into the lives of shorebirds through a combined use of excellent photographs and well-written accounts of the elaborate lives shorebirds lead. The book then has a strong chapter on current taxonomy of the group, discussing current issues of debate, but wisely choosing to follow the taxonomic standpoint of the IOC.As such, it presents a great overview of the current taxonomic views around this difficult group of birds, including the recent decision taken to include the buttonquails (Turnicidae) within the Charadriiformes. This chapter takes the time to introduce each group within the shorebirds, and a brief mention of each species found globally. Alternative common names are mentioned where appropriate, which is a nice touch – there is even an honorable mention in this chapter of the name ‘dikkop’, for the Thickknees! I personally love the high number of quality photographs used in this section to illustrate examples of species from each taxonomic group, giving the book a great introduction to the variety of species of shorebirds found around the world, and definitely making the taxonomic section much more palatable to wade through, if you will excuse the pun. The following chapter deals with plumage and moult, and does so in a really pragmatic way.While many general shorebird books carry a strong northern hemisphere bias, this one at least takes the time to summarise differences between northern and southern hemisphere lifestyles, and gives advice on how to estimate southern hemisphere parameters for the data it presents from the northern hemisphere.The chapter goes to great lengths to deal with the confusing terminology often found in plumage discussions. It breaks shorebird plumages down into easily understandable periods, and helps the reader separate out birds in different plumages. The section includes great photographs of the chicks of many shorebird species, which brings a feel good factor into it as most shorebird chicks are undeniably attractive! There are also great sequence photos of plumages of specific species at different ages and stages of adult life cycles, which will be beneficial to birders. This is a well-written chapter that clearly is the culmination of literally thousands of hours watching and researching shorebirds. The level of detail is impressive, especially when delving into more unusual aspects of non-traditional moults and plumages like in the Ruffs for example, and the discussion of geographic variation of timing of moult within a species. The addition of a separate but dedicated discussion of the age and temporal related changes to the bare parts – the eye, bill and legs is a bonus. A succinct discussion on different wing moult strategies follows, which includes quite possibly the best simple plain English explanation of wing moult I have seen to date. One small criticism of this chapter is that in some cases a sentence is split between what in some cases ends up being five pages of photographs and