All the Birds of the World
View all authorsFor the first time ever, you can contemplate All the Birds of the World together in a single easy-to-use, fully illustrated volume. Created for a broad public, from novice birders to expert ornithologists and anyone interested in the spectacular diversity of birds, this book has something for everyone.
85.00€
“The Handbook of the Mammals is a truly extraordinary contribution. There is nothing comparable! How truly marvellous!
Like an elephant’s egg, it grows from a speck to a spectacle. What a privilege! Every serious biologist should have the opportunity of seeing the Handbook’s and everybody else should make time to enjoy its surprises, delights, and its beauty. And thus, to appreciate what is still alive on the living planet, and what must be done to conserve it.”
William G. Conway
Zoologist, ornithologist, and conservationist
The easiest and most enjoyable way to browse through all the birds of the world
Weight
4.7 kg
Size
24 × 31 cm
Publishing date
June 2020
Published by
Lynx Edicions
Explore the wealth of details and features
packed into each lavishly illustrated page!
To buy the All the Birds of the World & All the Mammals of the World bundle, click and save 9€
Description
For the first time ever, you can contemplate All the Birds of the World together in a single easy-to-use, fully illustrated volume. Created for a broad public, from novice birders to expert ornithologists and anyone interested in the spectacular diversity of birds, this book has something for everyone.
- Presents every taxon accepted as a species by any of the four major world lists: 11,524 in total.
- 20,865 illustrations covering sexual dimorphism, morphs and many distinctive subspecies.
- 11,558 distribution maps, with notes on altitudinal ranges.
- All 3313 one-country endemic species marked.
- IUCN/BirdLife International conservation status given.
- Taxonomic treatment by the four major world lists indicated and compared for each species.
- Nomenclatural discrepancies explained.
- All English and scientific names from eBird included.
- QR codes for instant access to videos, photos and sound recordings, species-by-species.
- Checkboxes for personal record-keeping.
- All species known to have become extinct since the year 1500 presented separately in their own appendix.
- A 37-page world atlas of colour reference maps, with relevant details of interest to birders and ornithologists.
- The easiest and most enjoyable way to browse through all the birds of the world.
vitalbata (verified owner) –
I bought this book. All the birds of the world in one book!!! Awesome monumental work dedicated to getting to know the birds of the world.!!! Thanks for this book.
Andrea Suzzi Valli (verified owner) –
Ho ricevuto il libro “Tutti gli Uccelli del Mondo” è fatto bene e di facile consultazione. Farò subito un’altro ordine di acquisto per fare un regalo ad amici. Peccato non ci sia anche la versione in Italiano.
chris (verified owner) –
I got the book 2 days ago and i love it. There were a few nice surprises in it, like pages with extinct species.
beautiful illustrations.
i want to thank the staff of linx for there kindness, help and good information.
The bopok was a must buy for me and i love it.
MW (verified owner) –
Great book for every bird enthusiast for a very reasonable price! Drawings could have been a bit larger but since there are +10 000 species covered, it was probably the only solution. Absolute recommendation!
Terrageo (verified owner) –
As good as I hoped it would be. A fantastic accomplishment and a great deal at the price.
I have the other HBW and related volumes but this one will prove very useful in its own right. Having a good view of a large number of species of related taxa on the double-page spread gives one an understanding of the groups that simply isn’t possible through text alone.
George Candelin –
Bought via NHBS; Wow what a book! It is going to tke weeks to just flick through the illustrations.
Paul Donald –
Absolutelty amazing, what a treasure trove of information and delight. This book should carry a health warning – may be addictive! Armchair birding at its very best. Well done to the publishers.
Wiktor Domański (verified owner) –
Awesome book.
Paper quality could have been a little better but with so much content it would probably weight a ton.
Maybe splitting it into 2 tomes will be more reasonable, although being single book makes it quite impressive (and a little hard in handling).
Jos Hubers (verified owner) –
I am very impressed, sure for this price! I have past on the link too friends and several of them ordered the book as well! Keep up the good work!
Shoebill (verified owner) –
This is the greatest illustrated birds book! There are only illustrated birds, ranges, conservation status and QR code but enough. So I recommend for everyone that non-English language people.
Yes, this is a great price, of course!
名前以外、各ページの文字説明がない、まさに「図鑑」。日本の鳥好きな方にもおすすめします。割引&送料込みで1万円ちょっと、配達までおよそ20日でしたが、満足できる内容です。
jpolak (verified owner) –
This book is really monumental. It weighs 5kg. Of course, it contains every bird of the world, including male and female versions when those differ. By flipping through this book you will see birds at such a high rate, it’s like a smack in the face with biodiversity. It really shows how precious birds are and how we need to conserve them. Another fun thing to do with this book and look up species you’ve seen. You’ll then see all the species in the same genera and family nearby. It gives you a good idea of how evolution works.
This is certainly one of the most important books on birds ever published. And although there are online resources that are similar, none can give you the browsing ability that a printed copy can. I am so glad I got this book!
Andre van Halderen (verified owner) –
This magnificent book is the culmination of a 20 year labour of love by the visionary founders of Lynx. The artwork is of a very high standard, and the QR codes for each species provide rapid and comprehensive additional information. A must-have for any bird lover.
Shailesh Kharkwal (verified owner) –
I am eagerly waiting for the book. 5Kgs of weight will contain all the information I want to know about.
Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne –
Wow. All the Birds of the World in one book. How impossible this seemed when I first became a committed bird watcher as an early teen in the 1980s. Around this time, my parents gave me a copy of the fabulous ‘Birds of the World’ by Oliver L. Austin and Arthur Singer, an early introduction to the wonderful global diversity of birds. This really was more of a guide to the bird families of the world. A more recent and a superb version of this genre of book was also published by Lynx Edicions in 2015, ‘Bird Families of the World: An invitation to the Spectacular Diversity of Birds’ by David W. Winkler, Shawn M. Billerman and Irby J. Lovette. In 1986, when ‘Shorebirds: An Identification Guide to the Waders of the World’ by Peter Hayman, John Marchant and Tony Prater was published by Helm, for birders it seemed like an earth shattering moment. Over the subsequent three decades many wonderful family monographs have been published by a tiny handful of the world’s leading ornithological publishers. However, a single book which has all the bird species in the world was still nothing more than a daydream for birders. During the period from 1992 to 2013, the 17 volume Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) was published by Lynx Edicions. After a 21 year publishing marathon, a single publisher had published illustrations and descriptive text of all the birds in the world. HBW was a publishing milestone and a zoological milestone. Lynx Edicions is an unusual publisher. At the core, driving their efforts is a team of people who are field naturalists and scientists with a deep interest in taxonomy. But they have also channelled their work into a very efficient, commercially savvy and brilliantly administrated publishing business. One outcome of this is a database approach to mining the text and illustrations from one project, adding suitable updates and redeploying for future projects.
In 2014 and 2016, Lynx published the ‘HBW and Birdlife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World’, a superb two volume reference with every bird illustrated and distribution maps and succinct text. A book I keep dipping into as I need to periodically update the photographic guides I have written on birds. It is no surprise that this has been followed up with a single volume ‘All the Birds of the World’ (ABW). This is in the same standard large format of 310 x 240 mm of the HBW and the Handbook of the Mammals of the World (HMW). All the Birds of the World is also a door stopper of a book with 967 pages and weighing 4.8 kg. It is yet another publishing and zoological milestone. The fact that the first print run sold out so quickly says it all. Which person interested in birds would not want this book? There is something wondrous about holding a book in ones hands and knowing that it has every single bird species in the world; 11,524 taxons, 20,865 illustrations and 11,558 distribution maps. For a book of its size and importance, it was priced attractively in its initial offer. All of this for Euro 65 is an outstanding offering.
When I first opened this book, I must admit I was a little taken aback. It was different from every other bird book by the almost complete absence of text accompanying the illustrations. It looked more like a simple pictorial catalogue of birds with a lot of red circles broken into quadrants. Well, the absence of text should not be a surprise, should you take the two ‘HBW and Birdlife International Illustrated Checklists of Birds of the World’ (903 pages plus 1011 pages), and strip away the facing page of text, you will end up with a single volume of around 900 pages. But this book is much more than that. There are two key additions not found in the Illustrated Checklist, which compensate for the absence of text. Firstly, and not requiring much explanation is the introduction of QR codes which are linked to the online resources of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Hold a smartphone camera over it and hey presto you can read more text, view images and listen to calls. Magic. The second addition is an ingenious innovation; the taxonomic circle, that caters to serious birders who are preoccupied with taxonomy because that is their thing or because it matters for their life lists. For bird watchers, who are not into taxonomy, well, they can simply admire the beauty and diversity of birds with trogons, kingfishers and hummingbirds drawn by some of the world best bird illustrators.
The visual navigation is good. Colour shaded bars break up the families with summary text on the number of genera and species, and an indication of habitat. The species ‘box’ has a colour-coded distribution map with country codes, elevational range, length, a comment on whether it is monotypic or the number of subspecies, the IUCN red list category and a single country endemic status if applicable. Distinct subspecies and colour morphs are also shown. A fair amount of information is packed in even before you scan the QR code. The genera are also visually divided by a shaded text box containing the number of species in that genus.
The taxonomic circle introduced in the book is ingenious, a master stroke of infographics that strips away large tranches of explanatory text and allows keen birders to read the information visually, easily and quickly. A circle is broken into four quadrants, each quadrant representing the status of a bird in each of the four major checklists of birds. These are the eBird Clements Checklist, IOC World Bird List, Howard and Moore checklist and the HBW and BirdLife International Checklist of the Birds of the World (HBW). The HBW checklist is assigned to the upper left quadrant. There are four levels of status coded in colour. Namely, Species (red), Subspecies Group (orange) Subspecies (pink) and not an accepted form (white). In each family, when an issue of lumping and splitting treatment arises in a difference between the different checklists, these are indicated in the circle quadrants by letters. A, B and C (and so on) are respectively the first, second and third species within a family where there is a taxonomic disagreement between the four checklists. Letter are used rather than numbers as letters allow the use of upper case and lower case for the system to work.
Take for example the Oriental Bay-owl Phodilus badius. All four quadrants are red signifying all are in agreement that this is a good species. One of the quadrants has an upper case ‘A’. The ‘A’ signifying it is considered the mother species of another bird by one of the four checklists. It follows that there will be another bird with a lower case ‘a’ in the same quadrant, as the letters work in pairs. The quadrant is the HBW quadrant. Looking across, we see that for the Sri Lanka Bay-owl Phodilus assimilis, the HBW quadrant is marked with a lower case ‘a’. This means that the HBW checklist alone treats the Sri Lanka Bay-owl as a subspecies of Oriental Bay-owl, whereas the other three treat it as a good species or full species.
Take another example. For White’s Thrush Zoothera aurea, all four quadrants are red which signify all four checklists are in agreement that White’s Thrush is a good species. However, the HBW quadrant contains an uppercase C (i.e. the third bird in the family of Thrushes Turdidae where all four checklists are not in agreement). This implies that there is another bird which HBW treats as a subspecies of White’s (White’s being the mother species). Scanning the images we see Sri Lanka Thrush Zoothera imbricata has a lowercase ‘c’ in the HBW quadrant. Thus, HBW treats Sri Lanka Thrush as a subspecies of White’s. But we also see the Howard and Moore quadrant has a lower case ‘d’ for the Sri Lanka Thrush. Looking across the images we see that Scaly Thrush Zoothera dauma has an upper case D in the Howard and Moore quadrant signifying this checklist treats Scaly Thrush as the mother species of Sri Lanka Thrush. Thus, a somewhat complicated taxonomic tangle involving three birds and different species-subspecies treatments across the four checklists is explained simply and visually using coloured quadrants and letters. It is easy to pick up when you have the book in front of you. Clever huh. My only reservation with the system is the choice of colours. They may not be sufficiently contrasting for those who suffer from colour blindness.
The front and outside back covers have a visual index of bird families, with passerines in the front and non-passerines in the rear. The appendices contain species extinct since AD 1,500, a list of standard country codes used in the distribution maps, a generous 34 pages of colour maps showing political boundaries and country codes and a list of one-country endemics which will help world listers to plan their trips. The top five are Indonesia (557 species), Australia (369 species), Brazil (275 species), Philippines (270 species) and Peru (134 species).
The front sections explain how the book works and the four major world checklists. A page is devoted to each of the phylogenetic trees of the non-passerines and passerines. I would have liked these to have occupied a double page spread each, to make the images and text easier to view and read. There is a lot of fascinating evolutionary information embedded in these. For example, the African landbird radiation and Austral landbird radiation resulted in two major branches. The African splitting again with one branch having most of the Birds of Prey which includes the New World Vultures (Cathartidae), Secretary Bird (Sagittariidae), Osprey (Pandinidae), Hawks and Eagles (Accipitridae). The Austral Branch has small terminal branches for Seriemas (Cariamidae) and the Falcons (Falconidae), before a major split that gave rise to the Passerines on one branch and the other branch with further terminal branches resulting in New Zealand Parrots (Strigopidae), Cockatoos (Cacatuidae) and Parrots Psittacidae). Thus, falcons although so similar to eagles and hawks (on the African branch) are more closely related to parrots being on the Austral branch.
ABW is edited by Josep del Hoyo and in the preface he explains the story behind this book as a triple project which began with a 15 country Land Rover drive across Africa which led to the HBW and the Illustrated Checklists of the Birds of the World and the ABW. The inside jacket flap carries a mini author bio. In this book, he emerges from the shadows, with overt recognition of his pivotal role in transforming natural history publishing by building out the Lynx Edicions team.
Clay Kelsey –
I am eagerly awaiting my copy of “All the Birds of the World” but even before it gets here I want to express my appreciation to the staff of Lynx Edicions for their great customer service. They have been right on top of things as far as letting me know the status of my order and what steps they are taking to ensure a safe delivery of the book. During these strange and uncertain times of the pandemic, it is reassuring to work with this courteous and caring staff. Thank you!
Mansur AL-Fahad (verified owner) –
I love Lynx books. I even enjoy the smell of them when opening the envelope. Some people may ask, should I get it when I have the illustrated checklist of two volumes? I say if you care about updates and easy access to the bird page on the network, this book will achieve that for you easily. No modifications to the illustrations, so if you already have the illustrated vols and you don’t have a problem with bird updates, stick with it.
Hans Stel (verified owner) –
What a great book! A dream come true for every birder and naturalist.
Every kid in the world should have this book! Conservation begins with education.
Massimo (verified owner) –
Ho appena acquistato una copia del libro, che reputo un grande lavoro, ma subito mi pare sia uscita una nuova edizione con ulteriori aggiornamenti…..penso sarebbe stato più corretto avvertire
Toni Hermansson (verified owner) –
It is an amazing achivement for sure, getting all the bird species of the world in a single volume, all of them illustrated.
Yes, this book is all about the illustrations, and they vary from acceptable to masterful. In the acceptable spectrum, it´s mainly some issues with proportions and sometimes a bit dull colours. The Pink robin can serve as an example for both. Some ot the waders and birds of prey could also get better in a future update, perhaps.. The vast majority of the illustrations are very good though, and many of them is just perfect!
The QR codes are really great, and adds a lot of value to the book. I use them all the time. I belive this book will sell in great numbers for many years to come, and that it will be a reference to many people for decades, so I really hope the links that the QR codes provide will be kept alive “for ever” or at least for a very long time.
Despite some imperfections in some illustrations (yes I´m a picky one) I really love this book! To turn the pages and see all this beauty and fantastic diversity among the birds makes me happy, everytime. I don´t think I can say that about any other bird book I own.
It is a great value, well worth every euro. My highest recommendations!
Jim Mosley –
Received this as a gift. This book is amazing in its span and depth. The illustrations are very rich and well done. The QR code’s are very helpful on getting more in depth with individual species.
Sam Gillett –
Absolutely brilliant, a visual masterpiece. The detail is astounding with birds organised correctly. Worth every penny. QR cods add an added bonus, especially when learning bird calls!
Raoul –
In one word fantastic and that for a good price. A recommendation for everyone who is interested in birds!
Simon Knoop (verified owner) –
The book is incredible!
I highly recommend it for everybody who likes to broaden their knowledge in the incredible diversity of birds.
It is my 2nd purchase with Lynx Edicions. I have made fantastic experiences with the company. Very quick customer support and very fair and quick complaint policies.
5 stars for both the publisher and the book!
Kaitlyn Sellers (verified owner) –
The book itself is incredible, and really is comprehensive. Has range maps for everything, subspecies, extinct species, QR codes, you name it.
But, the shipping took around five days in total, and even though I paid only for the cheapest shipping option, I still got updates along every stop of the way. All the packaging was recyclable and sturdy to boot, and the book came in perfect condition. The price of the book really is worth what you get
Girish Jamadagni (verified owner) –
I received mine a week back. Had some time to browse through the book during the weekend. I was flabbergasted by the effort that would have taken to compile so much information on so many birds. I could see the passion with which the authors have worked on this monumental edition. Even in this digital world order, this book is relevant and any bird lover will definitely like this to be in their posession. Love this book!
Angie Silva –
Great portal to a bird dimension.
Got this book as a birthday present.
They could not find me for a week after.
Just wandering true the pages. Being amazed, finding connections, recognizing.
Looking at all the beautiful drawings, maps & finding even more treasures by scanning the QR-codes.
Got myself a pencil to add the Dutch names ( starting with the birds I’ve spotted trueout the years) .
GREAT BOOK MUSTHAVE 4 BIRDLOVERS. I think I’ll need an other lockdown.
Leopard1 (verified owner) –
I am truly amazed ! What a delightful book.
Delivery to Belgium was very fast; only 2 working days.
The book was nicely packed in cardboard and plastic foil, impeccable.
It is a really heavy book; 4 kg.
The quality is very good, smooth glossy paper.
The drawings are colorful and inviting; addictive.
The info is basic until you use the QR-code; a lot of info, sounds, pictures…
This is a must have. The price is very low, 65 euro, a steal.
This is the book I’ve been waiting for. 5 stars is barely enough.
John Allan (verified owner) –
Has anybody else had trouble with using the QR codes? My son, who is adept at tech, can’t make the QR codes in this book work.
Amy Chernasky –
We’re sorry to hear that you have had problems with the QR codes in “All the Birds of the World”. I’ve just tested some of the codes in the book and they work just fine for me. Please let us know what kind of error you are getting and we’ll be happy to try to help resolve it. A punctual error might be due to maintenance on the eBird website, but if the problem persists perhaps it’s the QR code app you are using? If it’s more convenient for you to continue the conversation via email, you can always reach us at lynx@lynxnaturebooks.com. Many thanks!
Aleks Arsoski (verified owner) –
The best bird field guide I have purchased. I’m amazed on how good this book is.
Love the use of the QR code
Sergio Leyva (verified owner) –
Absolutely love the book. I can flip through the pages for hours just looking at all the birds and many of their subspecies and comparing them to others from all around the world. The information given for each is perfect. Just what you need to know arranged in a concise and clear way. Brilliant work!
I only have one problem with the book. Though the great majority of illustrations are amazing, the quality of some is just not good enough for the rest of the book. A great example is on p.482 and p.483. To the left a superb illustration of a Pacific-slope Flycatcher that looks like a photograph. I can almost see it blinking and its feathers moving in the wind. To the right, a doubtful Olive-sided Flycatcher and Greater Pewee that look like taxidermy. I would not have identified them if I did not read their name.
You can see the different styles of the contributing artists in the hummingbird section. That´s fine, for the most part. But on p.151 the difference between the superb Blue-chinned Emerald and the Dusky Hummingbird is abrupt. The Boobooks in p.249 also clash dramatically. The differences are a bit disturbing.
Apart from that, all the birds in the world in a single volume is a monumental work of art. It was so close to perfection.
Harpy Eagle –
I recently received this book in the mail and was very impressed with how well it was packaged! It was double boxed securely and wrapped in plastic to keep it clean! The book itself is incredible and everything I was hoping it would be! The art and layout are great, and I love that it includes all the birds’ IUCN conservation status. If there is one birds book you have to own, it is this one!
hypercolius –
Delightful encyclopedia on the world’s birds
Umut Toprak (verified owner) –
I can confirm the positive comments of other reviewers regarding the general concept of the book, its print and packaging quality and its massive scope. I will be very happy to have it in my library for the years to come.
I hope the brilliant QR feature will find its way to other books/series of Lynx Edicions.
Highly recommended
TULOUP YVES (verified owner) –
Livre magnifique qui doit être dans toutes les bibliothéques des naturalistes : le fait qu’il soit rédigé en anglais n’est pas génant car il y a le gros plus des QR Codes: Bref un achat que je recommande fortement
On attend maintenant le même pour les mammiféres