Perseverance saved the day - but brilliant Collins bird identification guide was almost never published

                                                 

The 3rd Edition - bigger and better than its two predecessors

ONE of the star identification handbooks over the past couple of decades has been Collins Bird Guide - The Most Complete Guide to The Birds of Britain and Europe

It has been published in many languages and, last December, its 3rd Edition in the UK was published.

But curiously, the whole Collins Bird Guide project  nearly never saw light of day.

Its original commissioning editor, Crispin Fisher, sadly died and artist Killian Mullarney had fallen behind the clock.

The project had started in 1983, but after more than six years had elapsed and with no end in sight to the project, Fisher's successor as commissioning editor lost faith.

He had been prepared to give the project another 18 months to complete, but Killian was not even sure it would take a day less less than 18 years!

With the plug pulled by Collins, that could have been the end of the story.

But, "miraculously", as Killian puts it, he and co-authors Peter Grant (also, alas, no longer with us) and Lars Svensson, managed to persuade an alternative publishing house, the Swedish company Bonnier - which previously had been almost unknown outside Scandinavia - to take on the venture.

Part of the agreement was for a second artist, Dan Zetterström, to be engaged in order to lessen the workload on Killian.

Even so, another 10 years passed, but, eventually, in 1999, it was mission accomplished - the 1st Edition of the book was published (in hardback).

The acclaim was immediate. 

Since the day that the first copies arrived on shops' bookshelves, it has been  sold more than 1.3 million copies in 20 different countries.

There was no lingering ill will between the book's creators and Collins, because the latter secured (and retained) the UK publishing rights from Bonnier.

The new 3rd Edition is the biggest and best yet.

More than 50 plates are either new or have been repainted, and  the section with vagrants has been expanded to accommodate more images and longer texts for several species.  

The illustrations depict birds in  all the major plumages (male, female, immature, in flight, at rest and feeding - whatever is important).

One species, previously not included, that makes its debut is Saunders's tern - a bird that had been unverified when the previous two editions had been published.

In his research, Killian analysed hundreds of photographs (most of them in eBird's archive) and came up with an ornithological breakthrough.

Contrary to earlier belief, the species does not overwinter in Oman, the UAE or other parts of the Middle East

All these similar-looking birds are in fact, little terns, which in juveniles, as well as adults, lack the almost white secondaries of Saunders's.

Killian Mullarney - Saunders's tern breakthrough

"That was probably my most exciting research while working on the 3rd Edition,"says Killian.

Inevitably, it is the quality of the illustrations in Collins Bird Guide which will prompt most of the delight for its purchasers, but it is  important not to overlook the concise (and sometimes quirky commentary), plus the distribution maps, that are the contributions of Lars Svensson.

Lars really has had some fun when it comes to describing the calls or songs of some of the birds.

How about this, for instance, with the bluethroat: "Song slowly speeds up and suddenly turns into a cascade of melodious or hard and squeaky notes, often mixed with good imitations of other species (even reindeer bells may be mimicked!"

Or this with the Egyptian nightjar: "Song at distance like an engine (eg old-fashioned 2-stroke engine on fishing sloop)" 

All in all, this is a most engaging book - one of the rare volumes guaranteed to give you a warm and fuzzy sensation every time you open its pages.

The 3rd edition of Collins Bird Guide is published at £30 in hardback, but May 11 has been set for the publication at £19.99 in paperback. 

* An entertaining conversation between Killian Mullarney and David Lindo, the Urban Birder, can be viewed  on the latter's YouTube channel at:

54) In Conservation With… Killian Mullarney - YouTube   

Saunders's tern - conspicuously whitish secondaries