Owls of the World

By James Duncan; Reed New Holland, 2016 Hbk, 192pp; 120 colour photos ISBN 978-1-92151-764-8 £19.99 At first sight this appeared to a ‘coffee table’ book, but to suggest that would be a mistake. It is a knowledgeable and scholarly overview of the owls, written in a style that makes it accessible to the non-specialist, and illustrated with a mass of images, many of quite outstanding quality. The opening pages describe owls and their structural adaptations to a largely nocturnal lifestyle. A superb photo of a Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus skull shows the remarkable size of the eyes, which allow the bifocal vision essential to a predator, and how they are fixed and almost immobile in the head. This links to a discussion of the anatomical details of head rotation and its importance when eyes are immobile. Another section shows the asymmetry of the ear openings, and the author explains clearly how important this is for acoustic directionality when hunting in near-darkness. There are also well-written sections on feather structure as an adaptation to silent flight, camouflage, colour morphs and sexual dimorphism. Having introduced owl anatomy and its evolutionary adaptations, the author turns to ecology and behaviour. Again illustrated with stunning photographs. The second half of the book deals with the families and major genera of owls. There is not space to illustrate all 240 species, but there are images of every genus and brief descriptions of the taxonomy of each. This leads into a discussion of the interaction between owls and humans, both in mythology and in modern science and conservation. The book closes with a list of those species that the author recognises. This seems very up to date, including (for example) Rinjani Scops Owl Otus jolandae from Rinjani National Park on the island of Lombok, described by George Sangster and his colleagues in 2013. Much of the contents of this book will be familiar to many BB readers, but it gathers the information together in a very readable style. My only quibble is with the design. Whoever put this book together did a major disservice to some of the photographers. Publishing images of such high quality across a double page ruins their impact. There are too many of these, and all too often a significant part of the image is lost in the ‘crease’ between the two pages. That aside, this book would make an ideal Christmas present for a youngster who shows an interest in birds that goes a touch beyond simple listing. Thoroughly recommended! David Parkin