New Titles

1) Sundev, Gombobaatar and Christopher Leahy. Birds of Mongolia. 2019.  Princeton University Press. Paperback: 280 pages. Price: $35.00 U.S.
PUBLISHER'S SUMMARY: Mongolia is a huge, landlocked central Asian country encompassing a wide range of habitats, including forests, vast treeless plains, the Altai Mountains, and, of course, the Gobi Desert. With an avian population that reflects this diverse landscape, the country is rapidly becoming a popular destination for birders. The first field guide dedicated to the birds of Mongolia, this beautiful volume provides in-depth details for 502 species, including all residents, migrants, and vagrants.
     Gombobaatar Sundev, Mongolia's most famous ornithologist, and Christopher Leahy follow traditional field-guide design with lavish color plates―112 in total―depicting every species and many distinct plumages and races. Authoritative text on facing pages explores identification, voice, habitat, behavior, and status. Detailed maps not to be found anywhere else accompany the species entries.
     Birds of Mongolia is an indispensable guide for birders, adventurers, and all those interested in this central Asian nation.

• The first dedicated field guide to the birds of Mongolia
• In-depth details for 502 species, including all residents, migrants, and vagrants
• 112 lavish color plates
• Authoritative text explores identification, voice, habitat, behavior, and status
• Up-to-date distribution maps for all species

 RECOMMENDATION: A must have for those birding Mongolia!

2) Lederer, Roger J.. The Art of the Bird: The History of Ornithological Art through Forty Artists. 2019. The University of Chicago Press. Hardbound: 224 pages. Price: $35.00 U.S.
PUBLISHER'S SUMMARY: The human history of depicting birds dates to as many as 40,000 years ago, when Paleolithic artists took to cave walls to capture winged and other beasts. But the art form has reached its peak in the last four hundred years. In The Art of the Bird, devout birder and ornithologist Roger J. Lederer celebrates this heyday of avian illustration in forty artists’ profiles, beginning with the work of Flemish painter Frans Snyders in the early 1600s and continuing through to contemporary artists like Elizabeth Butterworth, famed for her portraits of macaws. Stretching its wings across time, taxa, geography, and artistic style—from the celebrated realism of American conservation icon John James Audubon, to Elizabeth Gould’s nineteenth-century renderings of museum specimens from the Himalayas, to Swedish artist and ornithologist Lars Jonsson’s ethereal watercolors—this book is feathered with art and artists as diverse and beautiful as their subjects. A soaring exploration of our fascination with the avian form, The Art of the Bird is a testament to the ways in which the intense observation inherent in both art and science reveals the mysteries of the natural world.
RECOMMENDATION: For anyone with an interest in bird art.