Gulls, Second Edition: A Guide to Identification (Natural World) [Paperback]

P. J. Grant (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0122956400 | ISBN-13: 978-0122956409 | Publication Date: August 19, 1997 | Edition: 2

The Second Edition of Gulls: A Guide to Identification incorporates a great deal of new information discovered since the last edition. Most of the entries have been updated, and the species drawings and distribution maps have been improved. Gulls details 31 species, and includes a new section on eight extra species which occur on the west coast of Canada and the United States. The book now features all species and subspecies which occur regularly in the whole of North America.

Key Features
* Covers 31 species in detail
* Contains more than 500 photographs including 79 photographs for eight North American species
* Improved identification drawings and distribution maps

Editorial Reviews

Review

From a Review of the First Edition
"...this definite reference to the identification and ageing of gulls is a basic text belonging in every birder's library."
--AMERICAN BIRDING ASSOCIATION

From the Back Cover

This paperback reprint of the second edition of Peter Grant's guide to the identification of gulls, brings this classic of modern field ornithology to an even wider audience than ever before. Long a favorite reference for the avid birder, it unlocks the secrets of the complex details of gull plumage, so variable in the successive age classes of the different species. Now it is possible to get to grips with those previously unidentifiable juveniles and to spot the vagrant species which often lurk in the midst of mixed species winter flocks.
The first edition so sparked an interest in the details of gull identification that a revision was soon necessary to include the results of all the patient work of the newly inspired gull watchers. This revision covers all 31 species found on the east and west coasts of the United States and Canada, as well as those found in Europe. All the plumages of every species are describe in detail and illustrated in 544 photographs and numerous detailed line drawings, making this the indispensable guide to this group of birds.
From a Review of the First Edition
"this definitive reference to the identification and ageing of gulls is a basic text belonging in every birder's library.
--AMERICAN BIRDING ASSOCIATION

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Academic Press; 2 edition (August 19, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0122956400
• ISBN-13: 978-0122956409
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,059,681 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great descriptions and photos leave you wishing for more., February 24, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Cooperstown, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gulls, Second Edition: A Guide to Identification (Natural World) (Paperback)

This is it: this book will enable you to master the gulls. This book, and hundreds or thousands of hours studying the birds, that is. Gulls are a pain, and no book can change that. But Grant does a good job spelling out everything you're going to need to figure out. The hundreds of photographs (inappropriate for a field guide, but perfect for a supplemental guide) are themselves a reason to buy this book: they're not art, but they will show you how much you can and sometimes cannot tell the various species apart.

It's actually a shame this is the best gull book there is, because the focus is very British. Species that do not occur in Europe or Asia get reduced treatment (those from western North America) or none at all (those that are normally confined to the Southern Hemisphere). So the description of, say, the Yellow-footed Gull is adequate, Thayer's Gull inadequate, and some Latin American species that stray occasionally to the U.S., nonexistent. But with the exception of the Thayer's Gull the book deals very well with the more difficult problems a North American gull watcher is likely to encounter.

If you think gulls are no fun, Grant isn't going to change your mind. But if you want to tell them apart, get this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No longer the best gull ID book but still indispensable, September 20, 2007

By 

Brian Allen "neotropical birding" (Manistee, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gulls, Second Edition: A Guide to Identification (Natural World) (Paperback)

I think Olsen and Larsson's Gulls of North America, Europe and Asia has just eclipsed Grant's book as the premier Gull guide but Grant is still excellent and in some ways better. Grant has excellent writren descriptions for identification purposes but the individual species accounts are far more detailed in Olsen and Larsson. That might not be of importance to all that just want a gull guide, the critical difference is in the illustrations. Grant has fewer illustrations, all in black and white, Oleson and Larsson have colored illustrations and show more plummages.

I do like this book better for comparisons with the black and white illustrations. For example it is much easier to compare juvenile Little Gull, Black-legged Kittiwake, Ross's Gull, and Sabine's Gull in Grant than in the larger Oleson and Larsson as this book groups them together in one section.

Both of these books are better classified as reference books rather than field guides but this book is slighter and easier to carry around to the lake or seashore than Oleson and Larsson.

This is an excellent book and very worthwhile to have if you are willing to work on gull identification.