A Dictionary of Birds enlists contributions from over 280 ornithologists and other specialists from around the world. Major, authoritative articles cover the field of modern ornithology and related subjects, many of them running to several thousand words. In addition there are articles on all the bird families, almost all of which are illustrated by a representative species. There are also numerous short entries defining special terms, application of names, etc. The total gives a text of over 800,000 words, supported by more than 500 photographs, drawings and diagrams. The photographs have been selected under the guidance of Eric Hosking to illustrate different activities of birds, and Robert Gillmor has assembled a collection of over 200 drawings of birds, almost all of which were specially drawn for the Dictionary. Compiled for the British Ornithologists' Union, this new work is in line of succession from Newton's A Dictionary of Birds of 1896 and Landsborough Thomson's A New Dictionary of Birds published in 1964 (2nd impression 1965) and now long out of print. This dictionary, encyclopedic in treatment, is destined to be a major reference in any ornithologist's library; and its editors and contributors, most of whom gave their time and knowledge freely, have earned the thanks and acclaim of users for many years to come.

The distinctive and amazing songs and calls of birds: a meditation and a lexicon. “A miraculous little book: a compressed encyclopedia of our fascination with avifauna.” —The Nation “A charming, funny, and eccentric book.” —Times Literary Supplement “An elegant tribute to the beauty of its subject.” —Los Angeles Times Birds sing and call, sometimes in complex and beautiful arrangements of notes, sometimes in one-line repetitions that resemble a ringtone more than a symphony. Listening, we are stirred, transported, and even envious of birds' ability to produce what Shelley called “profuse strains of unpremeditated art.” And for hundreds of years, we have tried to write down what we hear when birds sing. Poets have put birdsong in verse (Thomas Nashe: “Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo”) and ornithologists have transcribed bird sounds more methodically. Drawing on this history of bird writing, in Aaaaw to Zzzzzd John Bevis offers a lexicon of the words of birds. For tourists in Birdland, there could be no more charming phrasebook. Consulting it, we find seven distinct variations of “hoo” attributed to seven different species of owls, from a simple hoo to the more ambitious hoo hoo hoo-hoo, ho hoo hoo-hoo; the understated cheet of the tree swallow; the resonant kreeaaaaaaaaaaar of the Swainson's hawk; the modest peep peep peep of the meadow pipit. We learn that some people hear the Baltimore oriole saying “here, here, come right here, dear” and the yellowhammer saying “a little bit of bread and no cheese.” Bevis, a poet, frames his lexicons—one for North America and one for Britain and northern Europe—with an evocative appreciation of birds, birdsong, and human attempts to capture the words of birds in music and poetry. He also offers an engaging account of other methods of documenting birdsong—field recording, graphic notation, and mechanical devices including duck calls and the serinette, an instrument used to teach song tunes to songbirds. The singing of birds is nature at its most sublime, and words are our medium for expressing this sublimity. Aaaaw to Zzzzzd belongs in the bird lover's backpack and on the word lover's bedside table, an unexpected and sui generis pleasure.