The third in the excellent Christopher Helm series which includes Seabirds and Shorebirds. It brings together, for the first time in one volume, a concise review of all the wildfowl species of the world, illustrating all major plumages and subspecies in colour. The 47 superb colour plates by Hilary Burn form the backbone of the book, each page summarising the criteria required to identify, and in many cases, to age and sex each species along with colour world distribution maps and an easy-to-use cross-reference system to the main body of text. The authoritative text by Steve Madge treats each species in depth, giving identification, ageing and sexing features, as well as aspects of behaviour, migration, distribution, population and conservation.