The fabulous new two volume Handbook of Western Palearctic Birds, by two giants of Western Palearctic bird identification Hadoram Shirihai and Lars Svensson, arrived today. This was a bit of a surprise as the advertised release date was July 26th, but I am not complaining, as it appears to be superb:
It is a photographic guide, but one with forensic attention to detail, covering all plumages for all age groups, as well as examining subspecies and geographic variation. Usually looking at a photographic field guide involves looking at other people’s pictures – but not this time! Back in 2008, having just returned from a trip to Morocco with Richard Campey, I read a request for pictures of certain species and plumages advertised in (the now extinct) Birding World. I sent in two pictures. Producing two volumes with such a wealth of detail obviously takes time, so it was ten years later that I received confirmation that both images have been included. There are 5,000 fabulous photographs across the two volumes but I went straight to page 469 and page 506, where my female Western Subalpine Warbler…
… and my Western Olivaceous Warbler (now re-named Isabelline Warbler) awaited me. 
It was also a novel experience getting payment for a picture. At £25 a photo (assuming all photographers were paid the same amount) the photographic costs alone of the two volumes must be in the region of £125,000. The book will have provided a useful spike in income for some well-known bird photographers. It is expected that this book will become the standard identification text for the region for years to come, which combined with the photographic costs, may explain the RRP of £150. I have only flicked through both volumes, but already I would recommend it to anyone. Especially pages 496 and 506 🙂
Sweet!