Whether a birder, a twitcher or an ornithologist, I think we all are fascinated by owls. People often used to ask me what I thought was the best book on U.S.owls and would be disappointed when I would cite: The Owls of Europe, by Heimo Mikkola, published as long ago as 1983. This is as many of our familiar owl species are holarctic and because whenever I had a question about owl behaviour, Mr. Mikkola, seemed to have an answer or at least had studied the question viz. sexual dimorphism, owl movements, who maintains the home range etc. Also the Finns and Scandinavians in general have a long history of studying owls, not to mention, terns, gulls & shorebirds.

Now a new and hefty tome, has just been released in the U.S. : Owls of the World, A Photographic Guide, Second Edition, 2014, by Heimo Mikkola.
Of course, under the skin, it is published by Helm in the UK. Not only is it weighty, but with a weighty price of 49.95 and is over 500 pages. After that it gets better, being printed on heavy glossy stock and dripping with excellent,often fascinating colour photos, of HBW quality,together with range maps, basic data, index, biblio, photo credits and a longish natural history intro. Covers extinct Owls, but unfortunately not the ancient terrestrial barn owl types from the Pacific islands.

My favourite photo was of the handsome N.White-faced Owl of Central Africa - check out the "tall-thin"posture or the Great Gray Owl photo on page 355. Quite a few pictures, of high quality & interest, are by our own Paul Bannick. Check out his photo of mating Pygmy Owls When I first saw the book I immediately turned to species about which I had long been curious, like the Australian Powerful Owl, scary indeed when shown holding a Little Raven! Being a fan of Central American species, I had always wanted to know what a Bare-shanked Screech Owl looks like, but the photos were not so good and did not show any shanks. But I found the whole range of photos of Mexican species like Balsas Screech Owl and Bearded Screech Owl fascinating and the gammut of Pygmy Owl types.

You have to be paying attention, as there are splits, name changes and taxonomical shifts going on. Happily Oaxaca Screech Owl is not definitively called a new species yet. But I must have been asleep when Mottled Owl became Mexican Wood Owl. Yet there is much to admire in Mr. Mikkola's new title. It is definitely not meant to be a field guide, but there is much to be learned here. Best price at Amazon, I'm sure. David



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David Hutchinson, Owner
Flora & Fauna: Nature Books
Discovery Gardens: Native Plants
GSP Forest Steward,
Discovery Park
3213 W.Wheeler St., # 6
Seattle,WA.98199
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