A Field Guide to Birds of the USSR: Including Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Rating:
Summary: Good, but style out of date
Review: This field guide is unfortunately the only readily-available guide to the birds of the former USSR and environs. The presentation style reflects its 1989 origins. Reminicient of other early bird field guides, the color photographs are in a separate section from the text and map of each bird. Needing to jump between sections is unwieldy. Another negative is that only the breeding plumages of birds is given, many birds look very different when not breeding. To its credit, the distribution maps are on the same page as the textual descriptions of each bird. The text seems to be complete and very helpful. In summary, this book is a valuable resource to birdwatchers in the former USSR, but only because it is the only game in town.